DIED. John Belushi, 33, brilliant, anarchic comedian and improviser on TV (Saturday Night Live) and in movies (Animal House); of undetermined causes; in Hollywood (see SHOW BUSINESS).

DIED. Philip K. Dick, 53, prolific, sometimes visionary science-fiction writer whose multilayered stories probed the discrepancies between illusion and reality; of a stroke; in Santa Ana, Calif. The characters in his 50 novels (Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said) were often ordinary people trapped in extraordinary circumstances whose distorted perceptions prevented them from realizing their own dilemmas. The task of the science-fiction writer, said Dick, "is creating multiverses, rather than a universe."

DIED. Clifford Case, 77, liberal Republican from New Jersey who served for nine years in the House and 24 years in the Senate before being unseated in his party's primary in 1978; of lung cancer; in Washington, D.C.

DIED. Ayn Rand, 77, novelist and essayist, whose opinions inspired generations of conservatives, irritated liberals and entertained millions; in Manhattan. Born in Russia and educated at the University of Leningrad, she immigrated to the U.S. in 1926 and wrote the bestselling 1943 novel The Fountainhead, the story of an architect's uncompromising integrity. Yet her distinctive views were perhaps best summarized in the title of a 1965 work, The Virtue of Selfishness.

DIED. Charlie Spivak, 77, chubby, cheerful, honey Atoned .horn player and bandleader, billed as "the Sweetest Trumpet in the World"; of cancer; in Caesars Head, S.C.

DIED. William DeWitt, 79, hustling, persuasive baseball-club owner and executive, affiliated with nine pennant winners in both leagues, who began his 50-year career selling soda in St. Louis' Sportsman's Park; in Cincinnati. In 1944, DeWitt, general manager of the hapless St. Louis Browns, helped drive the team to its first and only pennant. His astute trades while general manager of the Cincinnati Reds helped "the Ragamuffin Reds" clinch the pennant in 1961, the club's first in 21 years.

DIED. Julian Levi, 81, painter and teacher whose work drifted from conventional seascapes to semi-abstract scenes; of a heart attack; in New York City.

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