Walter Keane Biography

Walter Keane was an American real-estate entrepreneur who later became known for plagiarism. He was considered a noted painter of a series of phenomenally successful and popular big-eyed paintings, until the creations were claimed by his ex-wife, American artist Margaret Keane, and later established by court as her creations. The initial career of Walter saw him selling shoes and working as a real-estate broker. He eventually started an educational toy business named ‘Susie Keane's Puppeteens’ with his first wife. The two used handmade puppets, among other things, to teach children French. They made hand-painted wide-eyed wooden puppets and sold them in high-end stores. Walter later gave up this job to devote his entire time to painting. After his first marriage ended, he married Margaret (Doris Hawkins) Ulbrich. Reportedly, over the years, Walter developed a fan following and made millions of dollars selling Margaret’s wide-eyed paintings as his own. Following their divorce in the 1960s, Margaret claimed that she was the creator of the paintings. In retaliation, Walter claimed in a ‘USA Today’ article that he had done the work. Margaret then sued Walter and ‘USA Today.’ A court "paint-off" in Hawaii later established the fact that Margaret was the real artist of those paintings.