  We present models for the complete life and death of a 60 solar mass star
evolving in a close binary system, from the main sequence phase to the
formation of a compact remnant and fallback of supernova debris. After core
hydrogen exhaustion, the star expands, loses most of its envelope by Roche lobe
overflow, and becomes a Wolf-Rayet star. We study its post-mass transfer
evolution as a function of the Wolf-Rayet wind mass loss rate (which is
currently not well constrained and will probably vary with initial metallicity
of the star). Varying this mass loss rate by a factor 6 leads to stellar masses
at collapse that range from 3.1 to 10.7 solar masses. Although the iron core
masses at collapse are generally larger for stars with larger final masses,
they do not depend monotonically on the final stellar mass or even the C/O-core
mass. We then compute the evolution of all models through collapse and bounce.
The results range from strong supernova explosions for the lower final masses
to the direct collapse of the star into a black hole for the largest final
mass. Correspondingly, the final remnant masses, which were computed by
following the supernova evolution and fallback of material for a time scale of
about one year, are between 1.2 and 10 solar masses. We discuss the remaining
uncertainties of this result and outline the consequences of our results for
the understanding of the progenitor evolution of X-ray binaries and gamma-ray
burst models.
