Elliott Smith, whose songs of despair and self-doubt made him a luminary of independent rock and earned him an Academy Award nomination, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 34.

His body was found by his girlfriend at their home in the Silver Lake section of the city, with a single stab wound that was apparently self-inflicted, according to The Associated Press, which quoted the coroner's office.

Mr. Smith reached his largest audience when he performed ''Miss Misery,'' the song he wrote for ''Good Will Hunting,'' on the Academy Awards telecast in 1998.

But for much of the 1990's, he was widely heard on college radio stations and on the club circuit, where he was admired for his delicately harrowing songs and, on his first albums, for the intimacy of his recordings.