Actor Joe Lara – best known for starring in the TV series Tarzan: The Epic Adventures – has been killed in a plane crash in Tennessee.

The star, 58, was one of seven people to die when a small jet crashed into a lake near the town of Smyrna.

His wife, Gwen Shamblin Lara, who founded a church in 1999, was also among the dead.

On Sunday, investigators continued searching for the bodies of the victims.

Captain John Ingle, of Rutherford County Fire Rescue, said that recovery efforts were ongoing at Percy Priest Lake and focused on a half mile-wide area.

Lara first appeared as the hero created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in TV movie Tarzan In Manhattan before reprising the role in the follow-up TV series.

He gave up acting in 2002 to pursue a career in country music.

His wife, 66, founded the Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood in 1999 and wrote a faith-based weight loss book.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the Cessna C501 plane was heading from nearby Smyrna Rutherford County Airport to Palm Beach International Airport when it crashed on Saturday.

Smyrna is located about 20 miles (32km) southeast of Nashville.

“With dive teams in the water, we are strongly urging civilian boaters to stay away from the public safety boats,” Mr Ingle said.

The National Transportation Safety Board had a lead investigator at the site.