Robert Dallos, 59, Financial Writer

Robert Dallos, a prizewinning financial writer and 23-year veteran of The Los Angeles Times, died Sunday while vacationing in Budapest, Hungary. He was 59.

The cause of his death was a heart attack. Mr. Dallos had worked the final 10 years of his career with serious heart problems.

Before joining The Times, Mr. Dallos worked for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. He began his career in journalism with United Press International in 1958. In 1988, Mr. Dallos received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University's college of communications. He had already won several journalism prizes, including the John Hancock Insurance Co. Business Writing Award. He co-authored with Ronald L. Soble the book "The Impossible Dream," about massive fraud at the Equity Funding Corp.

He was a past president of both The New York Financial Writers' Association and the New York chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

He is survived by his wife, Carol Dallos; their three children, Lisa, Jeffrey and Andrew; and his mother, Gertrude Dallos.