Sunday’s announcement of the death of Quebec entrepreneur Daniel Langlois and his wife, Dominique Marchand, leaves many people in mourning, including winemaker Louis Dugas, for whom Mr. Langlois was a “mentor.”
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Mr. Dugas had the chance, around fifteen years ago, to work as a manager with Mr. Langlois, who then opened his private club 357c.
“He’s a mentor, and then someone who influenced me a lot,” the winemaker at Trois Moineaux immediately confided in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
“Mr. Langlois was a genius, he was a very creative person, a leader who succeeded in business, in his projects, and who was very gifted. He was capable of being inspiring. He knew how to get the best out of each person. He was never satisfied with simple solutions, he always pushed us to go further,” he added.
Daniel Langlois and his partner were reportedly found dead inside a burned-out vehicle in Dominica, where the businessman owned a luxury hotel complex.
Mr. Dugas rubbed shoulders with Daniel Langlois when the latter was planning to open a hotel in Dominica, which he achieved in 2022 by inaugurating the Coulibri Ridge Eco Resort.
“He often told me, with this passion, this flame in his eyes, about his project in Dominica,” remembers Mr. Dugas.
“At the time, he was developing this concept of having an ecological and autonomous hotel. Then the vision he had was to have a place that was self-sufficient, to reuse water,” he explained.
Many tributes
The announcement of the death of Quebec entrepreneur, Daniel Langlois, created a shock wave in the world of business and cinema. Several of his former colleagues have also reacted on social networks.
Among them, Alain Mongeau, general and artistic director at MUTEK Montreal.
“I owe a lot to Daniel Langlois. It was he who entrusted me with the “new media” section of the new cinema festival for 5 years when it was known as the FCMM (1997 to 2001). […] The digital arts community is definitely in mourning today. So I was around him for many years, and even though sometimes I had the impression that he saw me as a bit of an alien with my ideas, he always supported me. Thank you Daniel!” did he declare.
Jean Gagnon, former general director of the Daniel Langlois Foundation also reacted: “What a shock this morning to learn of the death of Daniel Langlois with his partner Dominique Marchand in circumstances which seem scabrous. I worked with him for 10 years and we had respect for each other; I contacted him from time to time and he always took the time to respond to me. May they both rest in peace.”
Louis Dugas, Winemaker at Trois Moineaux, also expressed his “deep sadness”: “As manager at the beginning of 357c, I had the privilege of working alongside them. Daniel’s famous motto, “think outside the box”, still resonates with me […]. His attention to detail and determination to achieve his goals was remarkable. Receiving his congratulations for the floral arrangements that I had prepared for the terrace of 357c remains a touching memory. Daniel remains a significant source of inspiration and influence for me. Rest in peace, and thank you very much for having faith in me.”
Réjean Gagné, with whom he had worked on the development of the Softimage software, said he was “in shock” in a Facebook publication.
“I owe a lot to Daniel, for the confidence he had in me in the fall of 1990. He was the one who interviewed me, in the company which was still starting up at the time, and it changed my life. He trusted me, even though the tape of my master’s demo got caught in the VCR, and I couldn’t show anything. He took me on my word. In fact, he hired all three of us (Dominique, Richard and me), young inexperienced people, directly from university to create Actor, and thus write a very small part of the history of 3D animation. -he writes.
“Few people know that he collaborated with Croc magazine creating comic strips featuring plasticine characters. Already an innovator,” reacted the author and lyricist Pierre Huet.
Early Sunday evening, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, declared that “Daniel Langlois, visionary of digital technologies and cinema, has left us”. The minister also recalled that her company Softimage notably created 3D images for films like Star Wars. “The legacy he leaves us reflects his innovative spirit. My thoughts are with his loved ones,” she wrote on X.