Keiko (orca)
Keiko on December 1, 1998 at the Oregon Coast Aquarium
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| Species | Orcinus orca |
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| Sex | Male |
| Born | c. 1976 Near Iceland |
| Died |
December 12, 2003 (aged 26–27) Arasvikfjord, Norway |
| Notable role | Willy in Free Willy |
| Years active | 1993 - 2003 |
| Weight | 6 tons (12,300 pounds; 5440 kg) |
| Cause of death | Pneumonia |
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Keiko (earlier Siggi) (c. 1976 – December 12, 2003) was a male orca who portrayed Willy in the 1993 film Free Willy.
Keiko, whose name means "lucky one" in Japanese, was captured near Reyðarfjörður, 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 was given over $7 million to construct facilities to return him to health with the hope of returning him to the wild. UPS provided ground transportation to the nearby Newport Municipal Airport in a specialized container. Before he left the amusement park, he performed for the public for the last time. Weighing 12,000 pounds (5440 kg), he was transported by air in a C-130 Hercules donated by UPS. During the process of transferring him to the plane, trouble occurred but he remained unharmed.
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Wikipedia