Keiko makes his final journey

OSLO —  Keiko, the killer whale star of the “Free Willy” movies, was buried Monday during the deep darkness of Nordic winter in a ceremony kept secret from the public.

“We wanted to let him be at peace,” said Dane Richards, one of his caretakers. “He’s free now and in the wild.”

The roughly 6-ton whale died Friday in a Norwegian bay where his team was trying to reintroduce him to the wild. His trainers said the likely cause of death was pneumonia.

Richards said the burial in a pasture just yards from where Keiko, about 26, died was done in secret to avoid a media circus.

Keiko, which mean’s “Lucky One” in Japanese, became a darling of children through his stardom in “Free Willy,” a 1993 film in which a young boy befriends a captive killer whale and coaxes him to jump over a sea park wall to freedom.

The fame prompted a $20-million program to free Keiko from a Mexico City aquarium.