Born November 21: Christine Vachon

Killer Films' Christine Vachon turns forty-five today, coinciding with the release of Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan movie I'm Not There, which happens to be the forty-sixth movie she's produced. (If only she could have convinced him to cut the awful section starring Richard Gere.) Beyond wondering where Todd would be without her, because she also produced his Poison, Safe, Velvet Goldmine, and Far from Heaven, you might consider where independent cinema would have ended up without her vision. Just the highlights: Swoon, Go Fish, Kids, Stonewall, Office Killer, I Shot Andy Warhol, Happiness, Boys Don't Cry, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Storytelling, and One Hour Photo, as well as a couple dozen interesting misses like Robert Altman's The Company, John Waters' A Dirty Shame, The Notorious Betty Paige, Infamous, Party Monster, and A Home at the End of the World. As if making forty-six movies wasn't enough, in her spare time she's written two books about making meaningful movies with no money, Shooting To Kill and A Killer Life.