Eddy and Nelson Angélil

René Angélil (January 16, 1942 – 1942:01:16, January 14, 2016) was a Canadian musical producer, talent manager and singer.

He was latterly the manager and husband of singer Celine Dion.

Angélil was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a father of Syrian 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.

Angélil studied at Collège Saint-Viateur (high school), in Outremont and at Collège André-Grasset (post secondary), in Montreal.

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' song Hold Me Tight).

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.

In 1966, Angélil married his first wife, Denyse Duquette.

Their son Patrick was born in 1968, and they divorced in 1972.

After the dissolution of the group in 1972, Angélil and best friend Guy Cloutier 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.

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.

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 when he was considered as a potential producer for her album.

He soon took over as her agent.

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 first-date took place the night Celine won the Eurovision Song Contest on 30 April 1988.

Her mother was vehemently opposed to the union due to their 26-year age gap and his previous failed marriages.

However, she eventually relented as most of the family was supportive.

They married on 17 December 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 fertilisation.

Their efforts were extensively publicised.

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 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.

Their son René-Charles Angélil was born on 25 January 2001.

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 in Las Vegas so that Dion could sunbathe topless and Angélil could go skinny dipping.

The couple strenuously denied the claim.

Angélil was an avid 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 tournaments.

Angélil was also rumoured to be a dedicated gambler away from the poker table.

Dion suffered a miscarriage in 2009, then gave birth to twin boys on 23 October 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.

Angélil and Dion were huge fans of the Montreal Canadiens NHL hockey team, and were good friends of former Quebec Nordiques / Colorado Avalanche 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."

Angélil became one of several co-owners of Montreal's iconic Schwartz's Deli in 2012.

He continued as her manager until June 2014, when he stepped down because he had cancer.