Wasserstein had a rare quality of salesmanship and brilliance. Keep in mind that he wrote a 900+ page book on M&A, called Big Deal: Mergers and Acquisitions in the Digital Age. It's definitely worth reading (and is a book I frequently reference).

Yet, despite all his accomplishments, Wasserstein still had his weaknesses. If anything, he could get overeager. After all, during the 1980s, his nickname was "Bid 'em up Bruce." In fact, several of his deals turned into disasters and by the early 1990s, the sentiment was that he was washed-up.

But such things were not problems for Wasserstein. He loved a challenge.

For example, he started his own investment bank, Wasserstein Perella, where he built a solid platform. He sold the firm at the peak of the market in 2000 for a cool $1.37 billion (to Dresdner Bank).

At the same time, Wasserstein ran his own private equity firm (Wasserstein & Co.) His focus was on media properties, such as American Lawyer Media and New York Magazine.

However, perhaps the most telling example of his talents was his mission to revitalize Lazard (NYSE: LAZ). When he became the firm's CEO in 2001, he quickly got to work and used is financial skills to restructure the operations. By 2005, he took Lazard public. As usual, there was much skepticism. But Wasserstein had a grand plan.

He understood that there was a need for unconflicted corporate advisory services, which could be quite lucrative. It was certainly a smart move as Lazard avoided the mortgage meltdown -- something that killed some of the firm's rivals, like Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns.

Now, Lazard continues to thrive and will likely benefit from the upswing in dealmaking. Yet, the fact remains that the death of Wasserstein will be a big loss for Lazard.

Editor's note: Columnist Peter Cohan has long worried about Wasserstein's health. He first reported on rumors that Wasserstein was ill in July, 2006 on BloggingStocks. You can read his post about Wasserstein's death onBloggingStocks' sister site, DailyFinance.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook.