William Aloysius Keane (October 5, 1922 – November 8, 2011) was an American cartoonist best known for the newspaper comic strip The Family Circus.

[6] While in high school, he signed his work "Bill Keane",[7] but omitted the second L from his first name early in his career, in order "to be distinctive".

[8] Keane served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1945, during which he drew for Yank and created the feature "At Ease with the Japanese" for the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes.

From 1946 to 1959 Keane worked as a staff artist for the Philadelphia Bulletin, where he launched his first regular comic strip Silly Philly.

[11] From 1981 to 1983, Keane published the gag strip Eggheads in collaboration with his son Jeff, who now draws and writes The Family Circus.

[20] In 1998, Keane became the tenth recipient of the Arizona Heritage Award, joining—among others—Barry Goldwater, Sandra Day O'Connor, Mo Udall and Erma Bombeck.

"[30] Keane also counted fellow cartoonists Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts) and Mell Lazarus (Miss Peach, Momma) as close friends.

[31][32] In 1994, the characters from The Family Circus made a "guest appearance" in Bill Griffith's Zippy the Pinhead comic strip.

Griffith said that Family Circus was "the last remaining folk art strip"[34] and that "It's supposed to be the epitome of squareness, but it turns the corner into a hip zone.