Do you remember flicking on the TV to see a young John Gilchrist have bowl of Life cereal pushed in front of him, as his brothers stare surprisingly at him while he eats it?

If you're over 40, and grew up in a family with a fussy eater, you remember someone pointing out that, "Mikey likes it!".

Gilchrist played a finicky 5 year-old who hated everything, but loved Quaker's Life cereal when his older brothers passed it to him.

"Those are my brothers, so I probably thought as a 3 1/2-year-old kid, I'm just sitting at the family kitchen table," Gilchrist said.

This commercial ended up being one of the longest continuously running commercials ever to air. The iconic ad ended up running for 12 years.

Oddly enough that line was never uttered in the ad. When little Mikey who usually "hates everything" starts to eat the cereal his older brother actually says "He likes it! Hey Mikey!"

Regardless, "Mikey" didn't have any lines in the commercial at all, yet 41 years after shooting the commercial in October 1971, the actor still finds himself talking about it.

Continue to the next page to see what he looks like now.

In case you're wondering, yes John Gilchrist still enjoys Life cereal, and no, he doesn't get a free lifetime supply of it.

"It's who I am, but it's only a part of who I am; I have a lot of great things in my life," Gilchrist said openly of his TV role from when he was 3 and a half years old.

His parents owned a modest bungalow in Long Beach, where his father, a New York City cop and mother would eventually grow their family to include 7 children. John is the middle child.

All 7 children acted at some point and eventually helped the family move to Yonkers, buy real estate in East Hampton and pay for college educations.

"But money was never the driving force," Gilchrist said. "I honestly don't know the finances, and quite honestly, I don't care.''

Five of the seven children still live in Yonkers. John with his wife and 3 children live in nearby Pelham.

After shifting away from acting while attending Iona College, the now 44 year-old old works in ad sales. He first started in radio, including a time at ESPN, and now for MSG Networks, where he is the director of media sales, mostly negotiating with advertisers on TV ads.  

The former child actor doesn't mind when people ask about the iconic commercial and the ongoing fascination with it.

"It doesn't bother me -- to the contrary," he said. "I just never looked at it like some huge, big deal. Maybe that comes off to some people like I don't want to talk about it. Totally not the case. I love talking about it. It's a part of me."