Media Mogul, Adventurer and Philanthropist Ted Turner Dies at 87

The young Turner started buying radio stations across the South. He got into local television, profiting greatly by airing old movies, TV sitcoms, pro wrestling and local sports. By the late 1970s, his renamed Turner Broadcasting Company transmitted his WTBS Superstation to cable systems across the country. He bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team and broadcast their games nationwide. He even led the mediocre franchise to a World Series win in 1995.

Turner takes to the podium at the official launch event for CNN in Atlanta in June 1980. The network lost money for years and only became profitable in 1986 following its coverage of the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

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By then, Turner had ventured deeply into entertainment. He bought MGM/UA Entertainment Company in 1985, but when heavy debt forced him to quickly unload it, he cannily kept the movie studio’s library of thousands of classic films and cartoons. His move to better monetize advertising and interest in the older movies by colorizing classic black and white films like Casablanca sparked a huge backlash from Hollywood. He eventually relented, citing the costs involved. Still, his huge new cache enabled him to add the Cartoon Network, Turner Network Television (TNT) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) to his burgeoning cable empire.

“I’ve always subscribed to the notion that calculated risk is necessary to achieve any real success in business,” Turner once said. “Once you’ve weighed the possibilities, you have to take that final leap of faith, which is something I’ve done with some of my biggest business decisions, including the creation of CNN.”

Indeed, the network proved Turner’s most enduring and influential legacy, spawning cable imitators and competitors, including MSNBC and most notably archrival Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Media. Originally focused on domestic news, CNN quickly moved into international coverage after Turner took a trip to Cuba at Fidel Castro’s invitation. “Fidel ain’t a communist,” the once staunch conservative turned liberal icon said. “He’s a dictator, just like me.”

But Turner couldn’t dictate profits. CNN remained a money loser until 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on launch and it was the only network offering live coverage. The tragedy proved a turning point, transforming CNN into the go-to outlet for breaking news.

When the Gulf War broke out, CNN was the only American news outlet that was able to communicate from Baghdad during the initial hours of the campaign. Today, the network reaches nearly every country.

In 1991, Turner was named Time’s Man of the Year. In 1996, the media mogul merged his company with Time Warner for nearly $7.34 billion. Five years later, he lost most of it when AOL bought Time Warner and shares in the new company tanked. Shunted aside and at odds with Time Warner’s CEO Gerald Levin, Turner severed all ties with the company he founded in 2006. He never got over it.

Turner’s departure left more time for “trying to save the world.” A self-described “do-gooder” who Forbes estimated was worth more than $2 billion at his death, he was one of the first billionaires to sign the Giving Pledge to donate most of their wealth to charitable causes. He credited his father for instilling in him the need to give back.

He gave $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation to boost support for the UN and started the well-meaning but short-lived Goodwill Games to foster international harmony.

His Turner Foundation gave hundreds of millions to address climate change, environmental health, wildlife habitat conservation, sustainable energy and overpopulation.

Even his commercial endeavors had an ecological bent. He co-created the environmental cartoon superhero Captain Planet to educate children about the threats to the planet. One of the largest landowners in North America, Turner sought to bring back the endangered bison, grazing more than 45,000 head on his private ranches.  

Later in life, Turner became an avid conservationist. His Flying D Ranch in Montana serves as a showcase for his environmental efforts.

Morgan Rachel Levy/Redux

As audacious in his private life as in his business one, Turner was an avid yachtsman. Long before he became a household name, he won the prestigious America’s Cup yachting race in 1977. Later, he cheated death in a sailing competition off England in 1979.

Despite such triumphs, he opened up in It Ain’t As Easy As It Looks: Ted Turner’s Amazing Story about his struggles with mental illness. In his autobiography Call Me Ted, he delved into his private life, including his three marriages and divorces.

His last, and most famous, was to actor Jane Fonda in 1991. It ended a decade later on the day Turner, a non-believer, was quoted in a New Yorker profile as saying Fonda’s Christian faith played a role in the marriage’s failure. But she made clear that “We went in different directions. I grew up.”

Turner leaves five children, two from his first marriage to Judy Nye and three from his second marriage to Jane Shirley Smith.

He also leaves a legacy even larger than his oversized personality.

At a tribute in 2023, CNN’s chief international anchor Christiane Amanpour summed it up: “He created a completely different framework with which the world could see each other and see itself.”