Daniel Langlois

Education and Early and Career

After graduating with a degree in design from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Daniel Langlois joined the National Film Board’s animation studio in 1980. Encouraged by René Jodin, he took an interest in computer-assisted animation beginning in 1974. For five years, he carried out subordinate tasks while at the same time working on producing and co-directing the film Tony de Peltrie (1985), a classic in computer animation.

Softimage

In 1986, Daniel Langlois created Softimage, a company that develops 3-D computer animation software. He also worked on sequences in Colin Low and Tony Ianzelo’s Transitions (1986), the first 3-D animated film in the IMAX format. Langlois’s software programs were so sophisticated and effective that he was involved in many Hollywood blockbusters, including Jurassic Park (1992) and Titanic (1997). Softimage quickly became the industry standard. It was purchased by Microsoft for $200 million in 1994. Langlois continued as the company’s president and chief technology officer until 1998.

Philanthropy and Other Activities

The sale of Softimage enabled Daniel Langlois to create the Daniel Langlois Foundation, which promotes artistic and scientific research. In 1999, he established Montreal’s Ex-Centris, a state-of-the-art cinema complex. It closed in 2015. He also presided over the Montreal International Festival of New Cinema and New Media and created a foundation that supports innovative media arts related to aesthetics and technology. He was also president of DigiScreen, Media Principia and Digimart, as well as chairman of the board of Pixman Corporation. He was also involved in Hexagram, a fund for university research and creation in media arts and technologies.

Langlois and his partner, Dominique Marchand, spent 15 years designing and developing an off-grid, self-sustaining luxury resort on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Called Coulibri Ridge, it opened for business in October 2022. Langlois and Marchand were also involved in rebuilding efforts on the island following Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Death

On 1 December 2023, Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand were presumed dead when two unidentifiable bodies were found in a burned-out car that matched their own near the Dominican village of Gallion. They had earlier been reported missing. Police later charged two men with the murder of Langlois and Marchand, including Jonathan Lehrer, who owns property next to Coulibri Ridge and had been sued by Langlois in 2018 over a road that runs through Lehrer's estate. The news of Langlois’s death sent shockwaves through Quebec’s business and arts communities.

Honours and Awards

In 1994, Ernst and Young named Danile Langlois Canada’s entrepreneur of the year. In 1997, Langlois received a Scientific and Technical Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences “for the development of the actor animation component of the Softimage computer animation system.” He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999 for “his significant contribution to the film industry” and for being “a patron of the arts, a philanthropist and a defender of our ecological and cultural heritage.” That same year, he was also made a Chevalier of the Ordre national du Québec. He was inducted him into the Academy of Great Montrealers in the Economic category in 2004 and was made a Commander of the Order of Montreal in 2016.

On 3 November 2023, the Government of Dominica awarded Langlois the Meritorious Service Award for his contribution to sustainable development and research projects on the island. He also received honorary doctorates from the Université de Sherbrooke (1996), McGill University (2002), Concordia University (2004), the Université du Québec à Montréal (2005) and the University of Ottawa (2008).