Who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me? D-O-N, A-L-D, D-U-C—wait, that’s not right. Well, regardless of who’s leading the club or not, Donald Duck has certainly been one of the most prominent members of Mickey’s crew for quite some time. In fact, he just celebrated his 85th birthday, having debuted in The Wise Little Hen on June 9, 1934.

Though he didn’t properly debut until then, Donald had actually been mentioned in 1931 in the storybook The Adventures of Mickey Mouse, and was referred to as one of Mickey’s various barnyard pals. He was fully realized after Walt Disney heard Clarence Nash doing an unusual voice while reading some classic stories; Nash described the voice as being more goat-like, but Walt heard a duck, and designed Donald accordingly to go with Nash’s voice.

In The Wise Little Hen, Donald and Peter Pig decide not to help the titular Hen, who is trying to plant her crops; rather than do any work, they fake bellyaches so that they can play instead. When it’s time for the harvest, they again fake bellyaches to not have to work – but this comes back to haunt them when it’s time to actually eat the corn dishes the Hen cooked up.

A few months later, Donald appeared alongside Mickey Mouse in Orphan’s Benefit, in which he tries to give a performance but is continuously interrupted by the orphans, sending him into a squawking rage. This temperament has followed Donald ever since – though he usually has good intentions, he usually ends up being foiled in some way, triggering his temper. His signature outbursts usually include him hopping around on one foot while holding one fist and swinging his other arm, something which animator Dick Lundy referred to as his “fighting pose.”

Donald was a huge hit with audiences, and appeared in numerous Mickey Mouse cartoons as a regular member of the gang alongside Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Pluto. The success of Mickey’s Service Station in 1935, which focused on Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, established the trio as a small group of friends that would often get themselves into various kinds of trouble.

In 1936 he received a bit of a design overhaul, making him more round and cute, beginning in Moving Day. The following year he began starring in his own cartoons, beginning with Don Donald – which also introduced Donald’s lifetime love interest, Daisy. Donald’s troublesome nephews would expand the Duck family in 1938, and the rising popularity of Donald actually surpassed that of Mickey’s for several years. Donald began to be framed as the rougher, more edgy foil to Mickey’s generally wholesome antics, to the point where scripts that had originally been written for Mickey cartoons would be used for Donald entries if they were too rough around the edges.

As Disney Studios entered the 1940s, the company was forced to enter somewhat of a standstill on full-length feature films due to WWII – instead, they shifted to package films, which consisted of various shorts strung together. Donald would star in both Saludos Amigos in 1943 and The Three Caballeros in 1944, two films which would introduce some of Donald’s best pals, Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles. Donald appeared in two more package films that decade, Fun and Fancy Free (1947) and Melody Time (1948). Outside of the theater, Donald continued to star in his own cartoon series, but due to the ongoing war at the time, many of these toons were developed as propaganda. In most of them, Donald gets up to various mishaps in the U.S. Army (with Pete as his sergeant); the standout of this time was Der Fuehrer’s Face, the only Donald Duck cartoon to win an Academy Award (for Best Animated Short Film).

By 1950, Donald was one of the most recognizable characters in the world. As Disney turned its focus on to television, Donald became a fixture there as well, making regular appearances on the Disney programs at the time. In 1958, Donald actually co-hosted the 30th Academy Awards ceremony with many other film personalities of the time.

The final Donald Duck cartoon in theaters was The Litterbug in 1961, and though he appeared in some educational films and commercials later on, he essentially entered a period of retirement shortly thereafter. He wouldn’t return until 1983’s Mickey’s Christmas Carol, which would be Clarence Nash’s final theatrical portrayal of Donald before Nash’s passing in 1985; Tony Anselmo, who Nash had personally trained for the role, took over from there on out.

Donald turned 50 in 1984, and along with it came a large celebration, in which Donald Duck’s 50th Birthday aired, the Oscars held a special tribute in his honor, and the duck’s webbed footprints were molded in cement forever in front of the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

In 1987, DuckTales premiered, though Donald didn’t appear in many episodes; the show primarily focused on his Uncle Scrooge and his three boisterous nephews, though he would occasionally appear as a guest star. The Disney Afternoon block eventually gave him his own show, 1996’s Quack Pack, but this was poorly-received and was canned after just one season.

Though Donald had appeared in some video games before, he didn’t get a blockbuster gaming role until 2002’s Kingdom Hearts debuted. This crossover title between Disney and Square Enix placed Donald as a permanent party member, alongside Goofy, to the protagonist Sora. Disney had actually wanted Donald to be the main protagonist, while Square’s developers wanted Mickey – Sora was created as a compromise. Donald has since appeared in the majority of the other Kingdom Hearts titles as a main character.

In 2005, Donald received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, joining other Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. He has since gone on to feature prominently in the ongoing Mickey Mouse cartoon series revival, and has also been a major part of the DuckTales reboot as well.

Outside of films and cartoons, of course, Donald has often dominated the world of Disney comics. His first comic appearance was in a strip for a newspaper cartoon based on The Wise Little Hen, published in 1934. By 1937 he was published in his own comic book, and in 1943, Western Publishing was regularly developing original comic stories about Donald and other characters. Carl Barks soon took over most of the development of the Donald stories, characterizing him as adventurous and slightly less temperamental. Much of Barks’ world in his Donald-focused stories would later become the basis for DuckTales. Beyond the US, his comic stories and strips enjoy huge popularity in numerous European countries, and many other international artists would also work on Donald-focused stories in various languages.

After 85 years, Donald Duck remains one of the most popular cartoon characters of all time – both because of and in spite of his hair-trigger temper. From cartoons to films, comic books to video games and virtually every form of media entertainment beyond, Donald has solidified his legacy for at least another 85 years or so… even if he still isn’t technically leading the club.