People Pets
R.I.P.: Remembering Beloved Animal StarsFrom Gidget the Taco Bell spokesdog to Eddie from Frasier, we pay tribute to the late animal stars who stole our hearts
Credit: KAISER ROBERT/SIPA; Everett
Updated: Thursday Jul 23, 2009 | 01:32 PM EDT By: Rennie Dyball
WILLY
Keiko the orca starred in the 1993 family film Free Willy and had quite the adventure later in life. With the help of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation, the whale was rescued from an aquarium in Mexico and moved to Oregon, then Iceland, then Norway and was able to live in the wild for five years before dying in 2003. "In the movie, he jumps over a wall to freedom," says Mark Berman, the associate director of the Free Willy foundation. "And we made the story come true."
