Robert Taylor

Her eight marriages have made headlines, as has her friendship with Michael Jackson. She's tirelessly raised funds for the fight against AIDS. She's battled substance abuse, life-threatening illnesses and currently is recuperating from surgery for a benign brain tumor. Elizabeth Taylor, who turns 65 today, is much more than just a high-profile celebrity. Her film career has spanned five decades, and she's one of the few actresses to have won two Oscars and the AFI Life Achievement Award.

The Rev. Robert A. (Tony) Taylor, a Baptist minister known for his work with troubled youth in Oxnard, has died of cancer. He was 40. Taylor was the pastor of Pacificside Community Church in Oxnard and a longtime member of St. Paul's Baptist Church, where he had organized counseling, music and sports programs for teen-agers. "He felt that most minorities, in particular, had no male adult supervision," said his brother-in-law, Gary Windom.

Just before a Superior Court jury was to begin hearing testimony last year on whether to send him to the gas chamber, murderer Robert (T-Bone) Taylor allegedly hatched a plot to kidnap his two lawyers and shoot his way out of Orange County Jail. Taylor, 39, apparently passed two letters to a fellow inmate, who presumably was to be released. According to the plan outlined in the letters, that friend would kidnap attorneys Edward W. Hall of Santa Ana and Gary M.

Two men convicted of handcuffing an Anaheim couple to their bed and firing shots that killed the wife as she prayed and paralyzed the husband should be sentenced to death, the prosecutor urged a jury Monday. But the attorney for Robert Taylor, 39, of Sunset Beach and Norman James Dewitt, 36, of Cypress argued for lifetime prison terms, saying Taylor, the leader of the two, was a victim of a violent childhood.

In regard to the gutless act of toadying to a self-righteous pack of leftists who insisted that Taylor's name be removed because he warned Americans of the Communist rats who were using the film industry to promote Stalinism: I am delighted. Taylor would not want his name on a building occupied by the type of people who have ruined the film industry. Taylor, like John Wayne and Gary Cooper, told the truth about what was happening. Another person who helped run the Reds out of Hollywood was a guy named Ronnie Reagan.

A heroin smuggler in Saudi Arabia, upon being convicted in an Islamic court of law, was beheaded for his crime. (Part A, Dec. 16). While this kind of judgment and execution might seem severe by Western standards, I feel that if we are to win the "war on drugs" we may be better off with equally stiff punishment. If we are to fight this war, then by God let's fight it. Pass the death penalty for drug dealers, and then make it happen soon. You are guilty, you give up your right to live.

The former commander of the Los Angeles Police Department's Anti-Terrorist Division, who reportedly is under departmental investigation on suspicion of claiming overtime pay while moonlighting as a college instructor, was named this week to head the city's Northeast Division. Capt. Robert M. Smitson, 49, will replace Capt. Robert Taylor as commander of the police division that includes the Northeast communities of Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Los Feliz and Silver Lake.