Turner at the official CNN launch on June 1, 1980.
The media mogul, sportsman and longtime owner of the Atlanta Braves transformed American cable television by creating the first 24-hour cable news network.
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Ted Turner, media mogul, philanthropist and founder of CNN, died at his home near Tallahassee, Fla., on Wednesday. He was 87.
CNN first reported Turner’s death, citing a news release from Turner Enterprises.
In September 2018, Turner disclosed that he had Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder that affects memory and cognitive functions.
Turner transformed American cable television by establishing the first 24-hour news channel in the nation on June 1, 1980: the Cable News Network, CNN.
“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgment,” CNN chairman and CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement Wednesday on X. “He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand, and we will all take a moment today to recognize him and his impact on our lives and the world.”
The billionaire entrepreneur was previously married to actor Jane Fonda from 1991 to 2001, and the two remained close friends afterward.
He is survived by his five children, 14 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Turner’s early life and business career
Turner, shown here holding the World Series trophy in 1995, bought the Atlanta Braves in the late ’70s.(Ronald C. Modra/Getty Images)
Born Robert Edward Turner III on Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, his family moved to Savannah, Ga., when he was 9.
Turner attended Brown University, where he was captain of the sailing team while pursuing a degree in economics. He was expelled for having a woman in his dorm room.
He returned to Georgia to work for his father’s struggling billboard company, Turner Outdoor Advertising. After his father’s suicide in 1963, Turner inherited the business and expanded it, earning enough money to buy a local television station in Atlanta.
It eventually became the WTBS “superstation” in the early days of cable television, broadcasting Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks games and reaching tens of millions of homes.
Turner bought the lowly Braves and Hawks franchises in the late 1970s. (Under Turner, the Braves became known as “America’s Team,” winning a World Series title in 1995.)
‘Captain Outrageous’
He kept up with sailing, winning the 1977 America’s Cup on his yacht, Courageous. The victory earned him the nickname “Captain Outrageous.”
But perhaps his biggest feat came in 1980, when he launched the first 24-hour all-news cable channel, CNN.
“I’m often asked if we ever did any formal research on the viability of a 24-hour cable news, and my answer is no,” Turner wrote in his 2008 memoir, Call Me Ted. “I had spent over five years thinking about it, and it was time to get going.”
The rise of CNN
CNN’s first broadcast, on June 1, 1980, went to 1.7 million cable television subscribers across America.
“We won’t be signing off until the world ends,” Turner said before the launch. “We’ll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event.”
The fledgling news network found its footing with wall-to-wall coverage of news events, including the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the 1991 Gulf War.
Turner was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1991. “CNN, once derided as the ‘Chicken Noodle Network’ for its low wages and amateurish presentation, is now the video medium of record,” Time declared in its cover story.
But Turner wasn’t done.
He launched Cartoon Network in 1992 (two years after developing his own environmentally themed cartoon, Captain Planet and the Planeteers) and Turner Classic Movies in 1994.
Turner also began a rivalry with Vince McMahon by purchasing a professional wrestling production company and renaming it World Championship Wrestling, or WCW, which became the main competitor to McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation, or WWF, the predecessor to the WWE. It was sold to the WWF in 2001.
In 1996, Turner sold his Turner Broadcasting System conglomerate, which included CNN, TBS, TNT and the Cartoon Network, to Time Warner, the predecessor to Warner Bros. Discovery.
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, praised Turner as a “foundational force” behind many of the company’s brands in a memo to employees on Wednesday.
“Ted’s entrepreneurial spirit, creative ambition and willingness to take risks changed the media industry forever,” Zaslav wrote. “He believed deeply in the power of ideas, in doing things differently and in building platforms that could inform, inspire and connect people around the world. That belief inspired generations of leaders, myself included. He did not just disrupt media. He transformed it.”
Ted and Jane
Turner with Jane Fonda in 1990. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
In 1990, Ted Turner began dating two-time Oscar winner Jane Fonda shortly after her divorce from Tom Hayd
True to his bold, self-assured style, Turner tracked down Fonda’s number, called her and made his interest in her clear. They began dating once Fonda let her guard down. Their romance quickly made headlines for their seemingly opposite personalities: he, a brash, right-leaning billionaire; she, an outspoken Hollywood liberal.
They married in 1991 on Turner’s 8,100-acre plantation in Capps, Fla., and honeymooned as a blended family with Fonda’s three children and Turner’s five, both from previous marriages.
They separated in 2001, citing irreconcilable differences. Still, the split was amicable. Spotting Turner at a charity event later that year, Fonda quipped: “My favorite ex-husband!”
Turner’s charitable causes
Turner in 2012. (Reuters / REUTERS)
As a philanthropist, he founded the Goodwill Games, the Better World Society, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and the Turner Foundation.
He was also one of the first wealthy individuals to make a large charitable donation while still alive.
In 1997, Turner pledged a record $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation.
“The world has lost an unparalleled humanitarian, and many of us a mentor, friend, and personal hero,” United Nations Foundation president and CEO Elizabeth Cousens said in a statement. “The entire United Nations Foundation family extends deepest condolences to Ted Turner’s family and everyone whose life he touched.”
Turner was once the largest single landowner in the United States, with more than 2 million acres that were used primarily for sustainable ranching and conservation, and included his own 113,000-acre ranch near Bozeman, Mont.
In 2002, he started Ted’s Montana Grill, a chain of eco-friendly restaurants. Its flagship dish, the bison burger, came from meat raised on land that Turner owned.
Trump calls Turner ‘one of the Greats’
President Trump also paid tribute to the late billionaire, calling him “one of the Greats of All Time” in a post on Truth Social, but not without a jab at CNN.
The president said he was “personally devastated” by Turner’s decision to sell CNN to Time Warner because the owners “destroyed it” and turned it “woke.” He added that Turner was “a friend of mine” and was willing to “fight for a good cause.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Turner “led a life as big as the American Dream.”
“Through his varied contributions to the world of business and civic leadership, he helped drive Atlanta, our state, and the nation to new achievements,” Kemp said in a statement. “His media empire reimagined the American news cycle and broadcast TV as we know it, ultimately making his beloved Atlanta Braves ‘America’s Team’ for decades.
“Ted Turner was a bold man, entrepreneur and philanthropist, and even those who at times strongly disagreed with him respected him,” the governor added. “That legacy continues to impact us today.”