Oscar-winning 'My Heart Will Go On' lyricist Will Jennings dies aged 80

Will Jennings, the American lyricist behind Oscar-winning songs such as 'My Heart Will Go On' and 'Up Where We Belong', has died aged 80 at his home in Tyler, Texas.

The news was shared by Jennings' caregiver to the Hollywood Reporter, with no cause of death given.

Born in 1944 in a small Texan town, Jennings first found success in Nashville, writing lyrics for country music and earning his first No 1 with 'Feelins’' by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn in 1975.

Re-locating to Los Angeles, he pivoted into pop and hit it off in Hollywood after collaborating with the composer Richard Kerr to co-write Barry Manilow's 1977 US No 1 'Looks Like We Made it'.

This led to a prolific career, in which he wrote more than 500 songs for some of the world's most legendary singers, including: B.B. King, Whitney Houston, Jimmy Buffett, Roy Orbison, Dionne Warwick, Joe Cocker and Mariah Carey.

His hits include the iconic disco track 'Street Life', sang by the Crusaders, 'I’ll Never Love This Way Again' by Dionne Warwick, and the 1987 Whitney Houston chart-topper 'Didn’t We Almost Have It All'.

It was for his collaborative work on famous film soundtracks that Jennings became best known, however, winning his first Academy Award in 1983 for 'Up Where We Belong', written for An Officer and a Gentleman.

A 1991 collaboration with Eric Clapton, in which Jennings wrote the lyrics for 'Tears in Heaven' - a tribute to Clapton's late son - for Lili Fini Zanuck's film Rush, earned him a Grammy Award and Golden Globe nomination.

Most famously, he penned 'My Heart Will Go On' alongside composer James Horner, the Céline Dion-belted power ballad that became the most-played radio hit in history as the theme to James Cameron's 1997 blockbusterTitanic. This not only won Jennings his second Academy Award, but also a Golden Globe and a Grammy Award.

In 2006, he was honoured with an induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Among those to pay tribute were Peter Wolf, lead singer of The J. Geils Band, who wrote on X: "A sad time, the passing of Will Jennings, a maestro, brilliant mind and a gentle spirit. It was an enormous honor to have worked with such a musical genius."

US songwriter Dianne Warren also shared: " The love for your brilliant songs will go on forever. Write In Power Will Jennings."