Titanic Composer James Horner Dies in Small Plane Crash

Variety is reporting the death of Oscar-winning composer James Horner after a tragic airplane accident yesterday.

Composer James Horner, who won two Oscars for the music of "Titanic" and scored such other blockbusters as "Avatar," "Braveheart," "Apollo 13″ and "A Beautiful Mind," died Monday in a plane crash in Ventura County, Variety has confirmed. He was 61.

The two-seater single-engine S312 Tucano crashed north of Santa Barbara about 9:30 Monday morning and sparked a brush fire that was extinguished by country fire crews. Horner, a trained pilot, was alone in the plane, which was completely destroyed.

Horner was one of the most popular film composers of the last 30 years, and his "Titanic" soundtrack – with its hit Celine Dion song, "My Heart Will Go On," written with Will Jennings – became the biggest-selling movie-score album of all time, selling an estimated 30 million units worldwide.