'René Angélil' (born
January 16,
1942 in
Montreal,
Quebec,
Canada) is a
Canadian of
Syrian ancestry. He is the husband and manager of singer
Céline Dion. He studied in the
Collège Grasset and
Les Clercs de Saint-Viateur in
Outremont, Montreal.
He started out as a pop singer in the 1960s in Montréal, Angélil formed a pop rock group, "The Baronets", with childhood friend Pierre Labelle and Jean Beaulne, who were known as "Quebec's Beatles." This group had some hits in the 1960's as "C'est Fou, Mais c'est Tout" (a translation of the Beatles' song "Hold Me Tight") catering to the short-lived
Québec market for translations of English language pop hits from the
United Kingdom or the
United States. After the dissolution of the group, René Angélil began managing artists. He managed the career of two successful Quebec entertainers
René Simard and
Ginette Reno.
Not long after being replaced as Ginette's manager, in 1981 he heard Celine Dion's demo tape. In 1987 and 1988, he won the
Felix Award of manager of the year.
On December 17, 1994, after over 13 years of managing her, he married Celine, who is his third wife. What was controversial about this was the fact that he was twenty-six years older than Céline.Their son, René-Charles Dion Angélil, was born on
January 25,
2001. René also has three other children from previous marriages, the oldest of whom is the same age as Dion.
He suffered from
throat cancer (resulting in Dion temporarily halting her career to be with him), but has recovered. He is also a keen
poker 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, a series of high stakes poker tournaments.
' Marriages:'
-1966: first wife Denyse Duquette: mother of Patrick Angélil (born in 1968, same year his future wife Celine Dion was born)
-1970: second wife Anne-Renee Kirouac, called Manon on the stage (she was a singer):
mother of Jean-Pierre Angélil (born in 1974) and Anne-Marie Angélil (born in 1977)
-1994: third wife
Celine Dion:
mother of René-Charles Dion Angélil (born in 2001)
René Angélil will be portrayed in an unauthorized TV Movie Biopic about Celine Dion by Toronto actor
Enrico Colantoni (
Veronica Mars' Keith Mars).