Bruce Piedmont Wasserstein, an American investment banker and businessman, died today (14 Oct 2009) at age 61.

Mr. Wasserstein, 61, was the chairman and chief executive of Lazard. The cause of death could not be immediately learned, though he had been hospitalized earlier this week for what was described as an irregular heartbeat. The company had described his condition then as serious, but said he was “stable and recovering.”

“He was a great tactician,” Mr. Rohatyn said Wednesday. “He frightened people. That’s why they called him ’Bid-‘em Up Bruce.’”

”At the end of the trail, Bruce planted a stick, proclaiming it Bruceania,” One of his sisters, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein said. “It never occurred to me to claim the new world as Wendyania.”

Wasserstein had been dogged by rumors that he has suffered health problems in recent years. The company said on Sunday that Wasserstein had been hospitalized with an irregular heart beat. In most cases, cardiologists say the condition can either prove trivial or life threatening, depending on where it was occurring in the heart.