Keiko (c. 1976 – 12 December 2003) was a male orca captured in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland in 1979, and widely known for his portrayal of Willy in the 1993 film Free Willy. In 1996, Warner Bros. and the International Marine Mammal Project collaborated to return Keiko to the wild.

No story about a whale, or probably about any non-human animal, has been told more than Keiko’s story, so just by virtue of repetition it is historically important as cultural myth. Keiko brings to public awareness three things, if the story is told the way it actually happened:

It tells the story of a boy who befriends a killer whale named Willy and helps him return to the ocean after living an inhumane life in captivity. The movie was widely successful, bringing in $154 million dollars at the box office and inspiring a generation of young animal rights activists.

2024年11月12日 · A podcast called The Good Whale, which launches Nov. 14, seeks to explore the fascinating, heartbreaking, and captivating story of a captive killer whale named Keiko who captured the collective attention of the public after appearing in Free Willy. Here's what we know about the podcast, the fate of Keiko, and other important details.

It's an orca, a killer whale that we humans captured from the wild, took from his mother and trained to be completely tame and live alongside us. This killer whale was so tamed that at night, when his trainers went home, and he was all alone, he would watch TV from inside his tank. He liked old Andy Griffith reruns and action movies.

2020年12月17日 · The amazing story of Keiko the orca. Keiko, you will recall, had been captured in 1979 and taken from his family in the Icelandic Ocean to Marineland Canada. From there he was sold to an amusement park in Mexico City, where he was housed in a small, shallow tank, insufficient for an adult male orca to thrive.

2023年7月19日 · Keiko is the only long-term captive orca who has ever been given the chance to return to his native waters. Would it have been better to leave Keiko in captivity? Keiko was in poor health and grossly underweight while in captivity in Mexico.

2025年3月6日 · Keiko, the orca who captured the hearts of millions as the star of the film “Free Willy,” had a complex and ultimately tragic life. After years in captivity, prompted by the overwhelming public response to the movie, Keiko was rehabilitated and released into the wild.

2025年3月6日 · Yes, Keiko, the orca, is indeed deceased. He passed away on December 12, 2003, in the Taknes Fjord, Norway, at the age of 27.

Watch how Keiko, the orca star of the hit film Free Willy, became the first captive orca to be successfully returned to his ocean. From capture to stardom to rehabilitation, from seapen to daily outings with caretakers, experience how Keiko gained over 3000 lbs, mixed it up with wild orcas, and even exhibited physical signs of attempts to mate ...