Keiko (1976 - December 12, 2003) was a male orca who starred in the three Free Willy movies, and was perhaps the most famous of captive orcas. Keiko died on December 12, 2003, from pneumonia, in the Taknes Fjord, Norway.
Keiko was captured near Iceland in 1979 and sold to the Icelandic aquarium in Hafnarfjörður. Three years later, he was sold to Marineland in Ontario, where he first started performing for the public and developed skin lesions ind...
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Keiko (1976 - December 12, 2003) was a male orca who starred in the three Free Willy movies, and was perhaps the most famous of captive orcas. Keiko died on December 12, 2003, from pneumonia, in the Taknes Fjord, Norway.
Keiko was captured near Iceland in 1979 and sold to the Icelandic aquarium in Hafnarfjörður. Three years later, he was sold to Marineland in Ontario, where he first started performing for the public and developed skin lesions indicative of poor health. He was then sold to Reino Aventura (now named Six Flags Mexico), an amusement park in Mexico City, in 1985. He was the star of the movie Free Willy in 1993.
The publicity from his role in Free Willy led to an effort by Warner Brothers Studio to find him a better home. Donations from the studio and Craig McCaw led to the establishment of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation in February 1995. With donations from the foundation and millions of school children, the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon, spent over US$7...
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