Actor Joe Lara, known for playing Tarzan, died in a plane crash in Tennessee.

Lara was one of seven people who died when the small jet they were travelling in crashed into Percy Priest Lake in Smyrna. The others included his wife, Remnant Fellowship Church founder and Christian diet guru Gwen Shamblin Lara, their son-in-law Brandon Hannah; and married couples Jennifer and David Martin, and Jessica and Jonathan Walters.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.

Lara played the lead role in the TV movie Tarzan. He then reprised the role in the follow-up ‘TV series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures‘ which ran from 1996-1997.

However, Lara gave up acting in 2002 to pursue a career in country music.

Meanwhile, the Remnant Fellowship church released a statement, in which it said it lost some of its “finest and most loving” leaders in a “horrible tragedy.”

It described Mrs Lara as a “gentle, and selfless mother and wife” who had lived “every day laying down her own life to ensure that others could find a relationship with God”.