Walter Stanley Keane ( October 7 , 1915 -- December 27 , 2000 ) was an American plagiarist , who became famous in the 1960s , as claimed painter of a series of widely reproduced paintings depicting vulnerable waifs with enormous eyes .
Walter Stanley Keane ( October 7 , 1915 -- December 27 , 2000 ) was an American painter and plagiarist . He became famous in the 1950s for claiming he had painted a series of widely-reproduced paintings depicting vulnerable waifs with enormous eyes .