According to a release from The Good Whale, after Free Willy became an unexpected hit, fans learned the orca who played Willy in the movie — a killed whale named Keiko — was ill and living in ...

When Michael Madsen died, the first movie I thought of was Free Willy.

BELOVED orca Lolita, who was known for her mind-blowing tricks and decades spent in captivity, died just weeks after she was ...

An orca who lived with the star of the movie Free Willy has been captured on video swimming in circles in a small tank at a popular amusement park. Animal activist Phil Demers, who worked at the ...

In 1993, Free Willy dropped, and radio stations relentlessly played “Will You Be There,” the movie’s theme song by Michael Jackson. Kids could not escape orca mania.

Keiko the orca. Free Willy Keiko Foundation "We can be a rising effort. After the Free Willy movie, one of the biggest things that made it possible for us to help Keiko was the level of public ...

Now, 30 years later, there is another killer whale that the public needs to turn its attention to. Her name is Tokitae. The parallels between the movie’s plot and Tokitae’s situation are striking.

"My life changed forever when I saw Free Willy at 3 years old, and maybe, just maybe, coming to this screening will change ...

In the summer of 1993, the movie “Free Willy” — about a captive killer whale that’s heroically set free — was an unexpected hit. But when word got out that the real whale who played ...

Free Willy is a family drama about an orphan, Jesse, who befriends a young killer whale, Willy, who was separated from his pod and placed in captivity.