Keane was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in October 7, 1915, one of 10 children from his father's second marriage. His mother, Alma Christina (Johnson) Keane, was from Denmark; and his father, William Robert Keane, was of Irish descent.[4] Keane grew up near the center of Lincoln and made money by selling shoes. In the early 1930s, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he attended Los Angeles City College.[5] He moved to Berkeley, California, in the 1940s with his wife, Barbara (née Ingham), and went into real estate; both were real estate brokers.
Their first child, a son, died shortly after birth in the hospital. In 1947, they had a healthy baby girl, Susan Hale Keane. In July 1948, Walter and Barbara bought the stately John J. Cairns House at 2729 Elmwood Avenue,[6] designed by Berkeley architect Walter H. Ratcliff, Jr.[7][8] In 1948, the Keanes traveled to Europe, living in Heidelberg and later Paris. When they returned to their home in Berkeley, they began an educational toy business called "Susie Keane's Puppeteens", teaching children to speak French through the use of handmade puppets, phonograph records and a book. The "ballroom" of their large home became an assembly line of hand-painted "wide eyed" wooden puppets, with various intricately made costumes. The puppets were sold in high-end stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue.[9][10]
Barbara Keane later became head of her own department in dress design at the University of California, Berkeley. Walter Keane subsequently closed both his real estate firm and the toy company, in order to work full-time on his painting. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1952. At a fairground in 1953, Walter met an artist making charcoal sketches, Margaret (Doris Hawkins) Ulbrich. Margaret married Walter Keane in 1955.[11] They separated on November 1, 1964.[11][12] Walter Keane married his third wife, Joan Mervin, after his divorce from Margaret in 1965. They had two children in the early 1970s, while living in London. This marriage also ended in divorce.
Keane was 85 when he died on December 27, 2000 in Encinitas, California.[13]