He was 41.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner, Brian Elias, said authorities were investigating Bennington's death as an apparent suicide at Palos Verdes Estates, a small coastal city near Los Angeles, but no additional details were available.
Band co-founder and producer Mike Shinoda said on Twitter he was "shocked and heartbroken".
"Chester Bennington was an artist of extraordinary talent and charisma, and a human being with a huge heart and a caring soul," Warner Brothers chief executive and chairman Cameron Stang said in a statement.
