Walter Lazzaro (Rome, December 5, 1914 - Milan, March 3, 1989) was an Italian painter and actor.

He was the son of an art teacher and he was well known in the USA for numerous religious art works which he created along with his father. He was attending the art school in Rome, where later he was working as a headmaster (until 1939). In 1942 he was awarded at the XXIII Biennale of Venice and he was invited to the National Quadrennial of Rome. From 1935 he was a movie and theatrical actor.

During the war, as a lieutenant of grenadiers, Lazarus was deported to the prisoner-of-war camp in Poland, where he was drawing portraits of officers in exchange of food. He never signed his drawings as he was afraid of being captured. He didn’t want his drawings to be sold after the war either. Many of his paintings depict the great suffering which he experienced in the camp. In fact, on many drawings he wrote "hunger ... hunger”. Others depict a sort of hope to leave the camp one day.

After the war, back in Italy, he was actively teaching art, he was also painting. In 1958 he founded the "Poets-Painters Movement." At the beginning of his career, he was influenced by the Roman School, then he created his own, poetic world of "silence". It is not a surprise that Lionello Venturi called him: "The metaphysical artist of silence". His unique iconography depicts deserted beaches and abandoned boats, umbrellas and chairs, changing cabins in white-blue stripes, immersed in a metaphysical waiting, during which, according to words of De Chirico says, "we feel the subtle presence of life which is silent, we feel the silent life, but this silence can say so many things, which, usually, you cannot hear".