Oswaldo Guayasamin, 79, considered Ecuador's top painter this century, died of a heart attack yesterday at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, leaving unfinished his grand masterpiece, the Chapel of Man.

Mr. Guayasamin, a leftist and close friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro, had traveled to Baltimore for treatment of his eyes. "I paint the times I have been fated to live: the wars, privations and anguish of people unjustly relegated," he told reporters before his death.

In 1996, he began building in Quito, Ecuador, what he called his masterpiece: a brick and copper cathedral-shaped building with murals telling the story of "man in the Americas." At a news conference last month, he said it would be finished next year.

He was known for his fierce anti-U.S. rhetoric and argued that U.S. imperialism was Latin America's main enemy.

Peggy Cass, 74, who won a 1957 Tony Award for her portrayal of Agnes Gooch in "Auntie Mame" on Broadway and reprised the role on film, died Monday in New York. Ms. Cass was a regular panelist on "To Tell the Truth" and other popular television game shows of the 1960s.

Antonio Huaiss, 83, Brazil's former minister of culture, died Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, of multiple organ failure.

Pub Date: 3/11/99