Ray Kroc was the founder of McDonald's, a fast food restaurant chain. He was born in 1902 and began his career as a milkshake mixer salesman. In 1954, he visited a McDonald's restaurant owned by the McDonald brothers in California and was so impressed with their business model that he bought the rights to franchise the restaurant. He then opened the first McDonald's restaurant in 1955 and went on to expand the chain to over 36, 000 locations worldwide. Kroc died in 1984 at the age of 81.