Keiko

Keiko (c. 1976 – December 12, 2003) was a male orca / actor who starred in the first Free Willy film and was perhaps the most famous of captive orcas. Keiko, whose name means "lucky one" in the Japanese language, 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...