René Angélil (; January 16, 1942 – January 14, 2016) was a Canadian musical producer, talent manager and singer. He was the manager and husband of singer
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...
.
Early life
Angélil was born in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
, Canada, to a father of
Syrian
Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...
descent and a mother of
Lebanese origin. His father, Joseph Angélil, was born in Montreal to parents from
Damascus, Syria, and his mother, Alice Sara, was born in Montreal to Lebanese parents. He was the older of two children, he had a brother, André (born 1945). Both of his parents were members of the
Melkite Greek Catholic Church
el, Μελχιτική Ελληνική Καθολική Εκκλησία
, image = Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Damascus, Syria.jpg
, imagewidth = 200px
, alt =
, caption =
, abbreviatio ...
. Angélil studied at Collège Saint-Viateur (high school), in
Outremont
Outremont is an affluent residential borough (''arrondissement'') of the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It consists entirely of the former city on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec. The neighbourhood is inhabited largely by fran ...
and at Collège André-Grasset (post secondary), in Montreal.
Career
Angélil started out in 1961 as a pop singer in Montreal. He formed a pop rock group, Les Baronets (
fr), with childhood friends Pierre Labelle and Jean Beaulne. Les Baronets had some hits during the 1960s, mostly translations of English-language pop hits from the United Kingdom or the United States, such as "C'est fou, mais c'est tout" in 1964 (a translation of
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
' song "
Hold Me Tight"). After the dissolution of the group in 1972, Angélil and best friend
Guy Cloutier Guy Cloutier (born 11 February 1940 in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian music producer and talent manager.
Cloutier adapted reality TV to the Quebec market. Entertainers Stéphanie Cloutier and Véronique Cloutier are his daughters. The fa ...
began managing artists.
Together they managed the career of two successful Québec entertainers
René Simard and
Ginette Reno, among many other pop stars at the time. They parted ways in 1981 to each become solo managers. In 1981 (not long after being terminated as Ginette's manager and considering leaving the music business to pursue law school) René heard
Celine Dion's demo tape
A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed for ...
when he was considered as a potential producer for her album. He soon took over as her agent.
He continued as her manager until June 2014, when he stepped down because he had cancer.
Angélil became one of several co-owners of Montreal's iconic
Schwartz's Deli in 2012.
Personal life
In 1966, Angélil married his first wife, Denyse Duquette. Their son Patrick was born in 1968, and they divorced in 1972. He married singer
Anne Renée in 1974; they had two children, Jean-Pierre (born 1974) and Anne-Marie Angélil (born 1977), then divorced in 1986. Anne-Marie married singer
Marc Dupré in 2000.
Angélil, a well-known former singer-turned-manager, was sent a tape of then 12-year-old singer
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...
and invited her to audition in Quebec. He began managing her career, taking the teen and her mother on tour in Canada, Japan and Europe. He mortgaged his house to finance her first album in 1981.
Angélil and Dion began a personal relationship in 1988 when she was twenty years old. Their relationship began the night Celine won the Eurovision Song Contest on April 30, 1988.
They married on December 17, 1994, in a lavish wedding ceremony at Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica, which was broadcast live on Canadian television.
After Angélil was diagnosed with cancer in 1999, and before beginning radiation treatment, the couple turned to in-vitro fertilization. Their efforts were extensively publicized. Their son René-Charles Angélil was born on January 25, 2001. Dion suffered a miscarriage in 2009, then gave birth to twin boys on October 23, 2010. The boys were named Eddy after
Eddy Marnay, who produced Dion's first five albums, and Nelson Angélil after former South African president
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...
.
Angélil and Dion were huge fans of the
Montreal Canadiens
The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...
NHL hockey team and were good friends of former
Quebec Nordiques
The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...
/
Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche (colloquially known as the Avs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (N ...
president and general manager
Pierre Lacroix.
Montreal Jubilation Choir founder Trevor Payne has said that "backstage, out of the eye of the general public, they were the kindest, most down-to-earth, superstars that I've ever known in my entire career."
Defamation suit
In 2001, Angélil and Dion filed a $5million defamation lawsuit against the Quebec tabloid ''Allô Vedettes'', which claimed that the couple paid $5,001 to rent the swimming pool of
Caesars Palace
Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The hotel is situated on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and The Mirage. It is one of Las Vegas's largest and best known landmarks.
Caesar ...
in Las Vegas so that Dion could sunbathe topless and Angélil could go skinny dipping. The couple strenuously denied the claim.
Gambling
Angélil was an avid
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game wa ...
player, having qualified for the 2005
World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, and finishing
in the money at the 2007 Mirage Poker Showdown event on the
World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the f ...
, a series of high-stakes tournaments. Angélil was also rumoured to be a dedicated gambler away from the poker table. He reportedly gambled upwards of $1million a week at Caesars Palace, and kept a line of credit for the same amount at
Bellagio. In 2007,
Jan Jones, a casino executive and the former mayor of Las Vegas, claimed that Angélil gambled $1million a week, but later retracted the statement. Caesars Palace later released a statement of Angélil's gambling losses and wins with his permission.
Later life, illness and death
Angélil suffered a heart attack in 1991 at age 49. In 1999 he was diagnosed with throat cancer and made a full recovery after treatment.
He appeared in the video for
Simple Plan's song "
Save You" as a survivor of cancer. In 2009, Angélil reportedly underwent a heart-related medical procedure to deal with arterial blockage. The procedure had been planned for months and was not heart surgery.
Angélil had surgery in December 2013 for throat cancer. In June 2014, Angélil stepped down as Dion's manager to focus on his health, but was still involved in business decisions related to her career. In September 2015, Dion announced that Angélil's cancer had progressed and that he had only "months to live". Angélil died on January 14, 2016, of throat cancer, two days before his 74th birthday. He received a "national funeral" service at
Notre-Dame Basilica from the
government of Quebec
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
on January 22 and was buried at the
Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery.
Following Angélil's death, Dion became the sole owner and president of her management and production companies, including CDA Productions and Les Productions Feeling.
Legacy and honours
* 1987 and 1988:
Félix Award for Manager of the Year.
* June 2009: Awarded the
National Order of Quebec
The National Order of Quebec, termed officially in French as ''l'Ordre national du Québec'', and in English abbreviation as the Order of Quebec, is an order of merit in the Canadian province of Quebec. Instituted in 1984 when Lieutenant Govern ...
, as Chevalier
* July 2013: Awarded
the Order of Canada
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
.
* January 22, 2016: flags flew at half-mast on Quebec and Montreal government buildings in his memoriam and an official national funeral of the Quebec government was held in
Notre-Dame Basilica
* February 15, 2016: Honoured by
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
during its annual "
In Memoriam" tribute.
* May 14, 2021: asteroid
241364 Reneangelil, discovered by amateur astronomer
Michel Ory at his observatory in Switzerland in 2008, was by the
Working Group Small Body Nomenclature in his memory.
Representation in other media
* In July 2008, Angélil was named the fictional principal for the reality television show ''
Star Académie's'' fourth season in 2009.
René Angélil prend la tête de l'académie
LCN, July 29, 2008. He filled the principal role in the show's two separate runs in 2009 and 2012.
* Angélil was portrayed by actor Enrico Colantoni in a 2008 television biopic of Dion, ''Céline
Céline, sometimes spelled Celine, is a French female first name of Latin origin, coming from ''Caelīna'', the feminine form of the Roman cognomen ''Caelīnus'', meaning "heavenly". ''.
* In the 2021 film '' Aline'', directed by and starring Valérie Lemercier and loosely based on Dion's life, the character representing Angélil was portrayed by Sylvain Marcel
Sylvain Marcel (born 1964) is a Canadian actor. Marcel is best known in French Canada for appearing in Familiprix television commercials since 2003, and in English Canada for his role in the hit film '' Bon Cop, Bad Cop'' as Luc Therrien. He has a ...
, an actor from Dion's hometown of Charlemagne.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angelil, Rene
1942 births
2016 deaths
Businesspeople from Montreal
Canadian Eastern Catholics
Canadian expatriates in the United States
Canadian gamblers
Canadian people of Lebanese descent
Canadian people of Syrian descent
Canadian poker players
Canadian pop singers
Deaths from cancer in Nevada
Celine Dion
Deaths from laryngeal cancer
Francophone Quebec people
French-language singers of Canada
Members of the Order of Canada
Canadian music managers
Singers from Montreal
Officers of the National Order of Quebec
Deaths from throat cancer
Middle Eastern Christians
Burials at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery