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Will Smith will be a pallbearer at Muhammad Ali's funeral after playing the late boxing legend in movie

London-born boxer Lennox Lewis will help carry Muhammad Ali's coffin
Lewis was the last man to be undisputed world heavyweight champion
Ali will be laid to rest in his native Louisville, Kentucky after the service
According to friends, he had been planning his funeral for 10 years

Published: 00:04 GMT, 7 June 2016 | Updated: 16:24 GMT, 7 June 2016

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Actor Will Smith and former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis will be among the pallbearers for Muhammad Ali's funeral on Friday, joining a list of notable athletes, entertainers and politicians to mourn the boxing legend.

Ali's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky will come to a halt as they lay to rest their most famous son, who had spent more than ten years planning for his funeral.

Among those set to attend are former US President Bill Clinton, who was a personal friend of Ali as well as comedian Billy Crystal.

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Actor Will Smith will be among the pallbearers for Muhammad Ali's funeral on Friday (pictured together in 2003)

Ali will be laid to rest at this site following his funeral service in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday

Will Smith, who played Muhammad Ali in his 2001 movie of the boxing champion will help carry his coffin

Ali will be laid to rest amid the tranquil settings of this cemetery in his native Louisville, Kentucky

Lewis, like Ali, won an Olympic Gold Medal. The London-born Lewis was also the last man to be crowned the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

The other pallbearers will include Jerry Ellis, the brother of Ali's sparring partner and former world heavyweight champion Jimmy Ellis, Ali's cousin John Grady, his nephew Ibn Ali, his former brother-in-law Komawi Ali, Ali's cousin Jan Wadell and family friend John Ramsey, an Ali family spokesman said.

Ali stressed that his funeral was not only an event for the great and the good. He wanted the ordinary people to witness the event, in what is planned to be an inclusive, multi-denominational service.

Regarded as the greatest boxer of all time and renowned for his work outside the ring, Ali died on Friday aged 74.

Family spokesman Bob Gunnell announced the details of the memorial services on Monday.

Smith played Ali in the 2001 movie of the same name, earning an Oscar nomination and becoming a family friend. London-born Lewis, who went on to represent Canada in the Olympics, is one of three boxers along with Ali and Evander Holyfield to have held the heavyweight title three times.

They will be joined by relatives and family friends in carrying the casket through Ali's home town of Louisville, Kentucky on Friday.

A giant marquee has been erected in the grounds of cemetery where Ali will be laid to rest on Friday

Smith played Ali in the 2001 movie of the same name, earning an Oscar nomination and becoming a family friend

Legend: One of the transcendent figures of the 20th century, Ali died on Friday at age 74

More than 30,000 tickets will be distributed to the public for two memorials scheduled for Thursday and Friday in sports arenas in the city.

About 300 fans who could not wait gathered on Monday outside Ali's childhood home for a memorial led by Islamic leaders, a dance group and Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer.

Dwight Richardson, 32, a youth counselor, brought seven kids he works with so they could learn about Ali's message.

'People might not like it, but if you stand up for what you believe in, then you won't be a pushover,' Richardson said.

Muhammad Ali's younger brother Rahman, center, hugs mayor of Louisville Greg Fisher, second right

Rahman, right, pictured with his brother in June 1963 shortly before they converted to Islam

Friends and relatives gathered in Muhammad Ali's home neighbourhood to discuss the legend's passing

Lennox Lewis will be among the pallbearers for Muhammad Ali's funeral on Friday, joining a list of notable athletes, entertainers and politicians to mourn the boxing legend (seen here in February)

Ali, who suffered from Parkinson's disease for many years, and his family had planned his funeral for a decade.

Official events start with a private ceremony on Thursday, followed by an Islamic service for the public at Freedom Hall, where he defeated Willi Besmanoff on November 29, 1961. The service will be led by Imam Zaid Shakir of California.

Initially, it had been planned for Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan and the King of Jordan to both speak at the service, but they have both been removed from the roster.

On Friday, Ali's family will gather for prayers, to be followed by the funeral procession through Louisville. The route will include a boulevard bearing Ali's name on the way to the Cave Hill Cemetery.

Members of the public will be able to commemorate Ali at the venue where he made his professional debut

Ali was insistent that not only the great and the good should be able to attend his funeral

Mayor of Louisville Greg Fischer, spoke to the crowds gathered at a community memorial for Muhammad Ali

The main service will take place at the KFC Yum! Center on Friday afternoon, when Clinton and Crystal are scheduled to deliver eulogies.

In addition, Fischer announced an 'I Am Ali' Festival on Wednesday with programming for children.

For years, the plan was to have Ali's body lie in repose at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Gunnell said. That tribute was dropped at the last minute because his wife, Lonnie, worried it would cause the center to be shut down and knew people would want to gather there in grief.

In its place, a miles-long procession was added that will carry Ali's body across his beloved hometown. It will drive past the museum built in his honor, along the boulevard named after him and through the neighborhood where he grew up, raced bicycles and shadowboxed down the streets.

Neighbours gathered to remember the late boxing champion who will be laid to rest later this week

Floral tributes were left near where Ali was born as well as a pair of boxing gloves

Friends, fans and relatives have gathered in Louisville, Kentucky, in advance of the great man's funeral

In a city accustomed to capturing the world's attention for just two minutes during the Kentucky Derby each year, Ali's memorial service Friday looms as one of the most historic events in Louisville's history. Former presidents, heads of nations from around the globe, movie stars and sports greats will descend upon the city to pay final respects to The Louisville Lip.

'It's been a really bittersweet time for our city,' Mayor Greg Fischer said. 'We've all been dreading the passing of The Champ, but at the same time we knew ultimately it would come. It was selfish for us to think that we could hold on to him forever. Our job now, as a city, is to send him off with the class and dignity and respect that he deserves.'

Community activist Christopher 2X leads a procession down the street where Ali was born in Louisville

GENE KILROY - RIGHT HAND MAN FOR 'THE GREATEST'

They called him 'The Facilitator' because when it came to Muhammad Ali, Gene Kilroy got things done.

For years he traveled the world with Ali, smoothing the way for the heavyweight champ and making sure he didn't have to worry about anything other than fighting. Kilroy took care of everything, from arranging sparring partners to waking Ali up at 4 a.m. to go for his morning run during training.

But even The Facilitator has his limits. And so it was that Kilroy sat drinking a chocolate milkshake Monday afternoon in a coffee shop mourning his friend.

'It's tough,' Kilroy said. 'Really tough. I loved Muhammad Ali.'

It was Kilroy who got Ali's training camp in the Poconos built, Kilroy who helped carry Ali's mother's coffin, Kilroy who made sure Ali had the best accommodations for the Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman.

It was Kilroy sitting next to Ali on the plane as they landed in Zaire. Ali turned to Kilroy and asked him what the people of Zaire hated most.

'I told him white people. He said, `I can't tell them George Foreman is white,'' Kilroy recalled. 'Then I said, `They don't like the Belgians, who used to rule Zaire.''

Ali stepped out on the tarmac and yelled out: 'George Foreman's a Belgian!'

The crowd erupted, chanting 'Ali boma ye, Ali boma ye (Ali, kill him).'

The stories of his time with Ali have always flowed freely. They were always told with great gusto and obvious love.

He first met Ali when he was Cassius Clay, a teenager winning a boxing gold medal in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Kilroy immediately liked the brash young fighter, who could talk a blue streak even then.

He liked him even more when he saw a panhandler ask Clay for money and he reached into his pocket to give him $3 of the $8 he had left.

'That was just the way he was,' Kilroy said. 'Always thinking of doing something good for someone.'

Kilroy was an outsider viewed suspiciously by some of Ali's entourage when he joined the champ, while he was in exile from boxing, for what would be a 12-year run as his business manager.

He didn't stay that way long.

'He's a brother from another mother, a wonderful person,' said Khalilah Ali, Ali's second wife and mother of four of his children in a 2013 interview with The Associated Press. 'He's my rock, I'll stand in a fire to protect Gene. We love him like family.'

In recent years, it was hard for Kilroy to see how his friend was suffering. He didn't like that Ali was still traveling for public appearances even though he couldn't speak above a whisper and was deteriorating physically.

Speaking out about it may be why he's not one of the pallbearers for Friday's funeral, though he says he doesn't know for sure.

What he does know is that Ali dealt with his physical limitations like the champion he was.

'We had some good times,' he would tell Kilroy. 'Don't feel sad for me.'

It's hard not to feel sad now because the man he idolized is gone. A big part of his life is now missing, though Kilroy is happy his friend is no longer suffering.

'No more pain,' he said. 'He's at peace, and he's with God.'

Kilroy will be at the funeral in Louisville, just like he was with Ali at Joe Frazier's funeral in 2011. It's one last chance to say goodbye and close out his service to a man he always regarded as The Greatest.

Kilroy, who spent much of the last three decades as a casino host, has no regrets.

'I can look in the mirror,' he said, 'and say I did him right.'