Keiko the killer whale, who was the star of the "Free Willy" movies, swims in his tank at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport in this Jan. 22, 1998, file photo. The famous killer whale died of pneumonia last week. AP File Photo

NEWPORT (AP) - In this coastal tourist town that was once home to world-famous killer whale Keiko, most people had the same reaction to the news of the 27-year-old mammal's death: He never should have been taken away from Oregon.

Keiko, made famous by the "Free Willy" movies, should have been kept at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, said Siletz resident Sherrie Jones.

"That's all he knew," she said. "He liked people contact, and they kept pushing him away from them."

The fame Keiko gained from the movies led to a $20 million drive to free him in real life after it was found he was languishing in poor conditions in a Mexico City amusement park. He was brought to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in 1996, and two years later was flown to Iceland.

Once there, handlers taught him to catch his own fish and interact with wild orca. He was finally released in mid-2002, but remained relatively close to humans for the rest of his life. He died of pneumonia this week in a Norwegian fjord.

Although his time in Newport was relatively short, this town considered Keiko their very own.

"He was an icon," said Carole Needham of Seal Rock, sitting at the Galley Ho bar with her husband, Dave. "I think the aquarium was doing a good job and he seemed happy."

Keiko brought people to Newport in droves.

"Everybody was always looking for Keiko stuff," said Debbi Sell, a waitress at Mo's Clam Chowder on Bay Street. "We even had a Keiko Root Beer for awhile. The kids loved it."

Thousands lined the 3.5-mile route from the airport to the aquarium when he arrived in 1996. They did the same thing the day a flatbed truck hauled the 9,050-pound, 35-foot-long animal back to the airport for his flight on a cargo plane to Iceland.

And controversy followed him every step of the way. There were those who said he would never survive in the wild, and those who thought it cruel to keep him in a tank any longer.

"Both sides will always think they're right," said Ken Lytwyn, who worked with Keiko while he was at the aquarium. "I tried to stay out of it. My job was the animal first. You have to do what's best for the animal. I wish both sides would have thought more about the animal than themselves."

It wasn't the aquarium's decision to release him. The Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, which owned Keiko, felt it was best he have a chance in the wild again, said Dave Phillips, the foundation's executive director.

"I have little doubt that if he had been kept in Mexico or at the (Oregon Coast) Aquarium, he'd have been dead long ago," Phillips said Saturday by phone from San Francisco.

"Not only did we prolong his life, we dramatically improved his life. We feel like we did a great thing in giving him that chance."

In Oregon, Keiko gained 1,000 pounds, and his lesions disappeared.

And he loved to play to the crowds.

"Oh, he was just wonderful," said Vicki Soren of Florence, who was at the Passages of the Deep exhibit Saturday with her stepdaughter and grandchildren. "He played up to the people."

Soren, who lived in Idaho then came all the way to see Keiko on a few occasions.

"I personally thought he was better off in the aquarium," she said. "He'd been in captivity for so long, this is all he knew."