Tony Bryant, a former Black Panther who became an anti-Castro paramilitary after spending 11 years a Cuban prison, died Friday after a two-year battle with leukemia. He was 60. Mr. Bryant was well-loved by the Cuban exile community, said John Suarez of the Miami-based Free Cuba Foundation.

"He was viewed as a hero," Suarez said. "He would be going up and down Eighth Street with his black beret and black military outfit, and was greeted with a hero's welcome at all times."

A California native, Mr. Bryant became involved with street gangs and heroin in his teens. He became one of the most powerful of the Black Panthers, nicknamed "Mr. Eliminator."

Mr. Bryant's revolutionary illusions crumbled in 1969 when he hijacked a National Airlines flight bound from New York to Miami, and diverted it to Havana. Expecting a warm welcome, and hoping to trade the jet for weapons to fuel a Black Panther revolt, Mr. Bryant instead landed in prison.

His mistake: Stealing money from the flight's passengers, one of whom turned out to be a Cuban agent. Mr. Bryant's philosophy changed in the cramped, foul-smelling prison, where severe beatings and execution were a constant threat. He chronicled the nightmarish experience in a book titled Hijack, which he had been attempting to make into a movie.

In 1980, Mr. Bryant was released by Fidel Castro in a deal brokered by President Jimmy Carter. He got only five years' probation for the hijacking charge.

Mr. Bryant became involved with Comandos L, a militant anti-Castro group founded by former Havana cellmate Tony Cuesta. In 1992, he was charged with carrying weapons for Comandos L on his boat. He was acquitted in 1993.

In recent years, friends say, Mr. Bryant had sought more-peaceful solutions. In 1996 he resigned from Comandos L, and in 1997 he campaigned for the Miami City Commission. He no longer sought a war in Cuba.

"I don't want to see an internal conflict [in Cuba] where lots of innocent people are killed," he told the Sun-Sentinel in 1997. "Life is too beautiful to die like that."

"He came to one of our meetings with a flower in the canon of his rifle, embracing our philosophy of peaceful struggle," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the nonviolent group Movimiento Democracia. "We thought that that was a pretty nice gesture on his side, for a man who had always embraced traditional war methods."

Mr. Bryant recently completed a screenplay based on his book, said his companion of six years, Jennifer Viscasillas. She still hopes to make the movie a reality.

Mr. Bryant is survived by sister Rommel Bryant and son Tony Bryant, Jr., of San Bernardino, Calif. Services are pending.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.