Remembering ‘The Greatest’: Politicians, stars to pay tribute to Ali
Former President Bill Clinton will eulogize Muhammad Ali at a memorial service Friday, June 10, in Louisville, Kentucky. Clinton, here with Ali at 2000 gala, awarded the boxing great the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2001. He said he went on "to forge a friendship with a man who, through triumph and trials, became even greater than his legend."
MANNY CENETA/AFP/Getty Images
Billy Crystal will also deliver a eulogy. The comedian and Ali had a friendship that lasted more than three decades, he wrote in a 2010 piece for USA Today, calling the boxer who refused draft orders to join the Army a teacher, healer and "the fighter who wouldn't fight."
Nick Elgar/Hulton Archive/ImageDirect/Getty Images
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah will speak. Ali once called Hatch his favorite politician, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, citing a 1988 Insight Magazine article. "He was so polite and courteous. And I could tell he wasn't patronizing me like some people do," the newspaper quoted Ali as saying. After Ali's death, Hatch said his friendship with Ali is "a special blessing that I will always cherish."
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Actor Will Smith, who won an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the boxer in the 2001 film "Ali," will serve as a pallbearer. He posted on Facebook after Ali's death that the fighter "changed my life."
LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP/Getty Images
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is one of the international dignitaries expected to attend the memorial service.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images/File
Former heavyweight champ Lennox Lewis, who will be a pallbearer at the funeral, wrote in the Daily Mail newspaper that "Ali meant everything to me. He motivated me to be a boxer and from being a boxer he motivated me to be the best boxer I could possibly be."
HUGO PHILPOTT/AFP/Getty Images
Attallah Shabazz is the eldest daughter of Malcolm X, whose friendship with Ali helped spark the boxer's conversion to Islam in the 1960s. She will deliver a poetry reading at the memorial.
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic/getty images
Journalist Bryant Gumbel, right, will be among those eulogizing Ali on June 10. Ali was a good friend to the former "Today" show host and sportscaster, the show said.