NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Ted Turner, a brash and outspoken television pioneer who raced yachts, owned huge chunks of the American West and transformed the news business by launching and introducing the 24-hour news cycle, died Wednesday. He was 87.
Turner died surrounded by his family, according to Turner Enterprises, the company that oversees his vast business interests and investments.
Turner owned professional sports teams in Atlanta, defended the in yachting in 1977 and donated a stunning $1 billion to United Nations charities. He married three women 鈥� most famously actor Jane Fonda 鈥� and earned the nicknames 鈥淐aptain Outrageous鈥� and 鈥淭he Mouth of the South.鈥�
He once bragged: 鈥淚f only I had a little humility, I鈥檇 be perfect.鈥�
He was slowed in later years by Lewy body dementia. Long since out of the television business, he concentrated on philanthropy and his more than 2 million acres of property, including the nation鈥檚 largest bison herd.
His garrulous personality sometimes overshadowed a driven, risk-taking business acumen. By the time he sold his Turner Broadcasting System to Time Warner Inc. in a 1996 media megadeal, Turner had turned his late father鈥檚 billboard company into a global conglomerate that included seven major cable networks, three professional and a pair of hit movie studios.
President Donald Trump, reacting to Turner’s death, called him 鈥渙ne of the Greats of All Time.鈥�
鈥淲henever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!鈥� Trump posted on social media.
The creation of CNN
Turner鈥檚 signature achievement was creating CNN, the first 24-hour, all-news television network in 1980. At a time news is instantly available at anyone鈥檚 fingertips, it鈥檚 hard to recall that the idea of letting consumers decide when they choose to learn what鈥檚 going on in the world was once revolutionary.
In part, Turner鈥檚 own frustration with television news was the instigator. He often worked past 8 p.m., after the ABC, CBS and NBC nightly newscasts had already gone off the air, and was in bed by the time his local stations did their own newscasts at 11 p.m.
He took a chance by starting the operation sometimes derided as the 鈥渃hicken noodle network鈥� in the early days of cable television, living in an apartment above its Atlanta office.
鈥淚 was going to have to hit hard and move incredibly fast and that鈥檚 what we did 鈥� move so fast that the (broadcast) networks wouldn鈥檛 have the time to respond, because they should have done this, not me,鈥� Turner recalled in a 2016 interview with the Academy of Achievement. 鈥淏ut they didn鈥檛 have the imagination.鈥�
CNN鈥檚 breakthrough moment came during the Gulf War with Iraq in 1991. Most television journalists had fled Baghdad, warned of an imminent American attack. CNN stayed, capturing arresting images of a war鈥檚 outbreak, with anti-aircraft tracers streaking across the sky and correspondents flinching from the concussion of bombs.
Turner was promised a continued role in CNN after his company鈥檚 sale to Time Warner for $7.3 billion in stock, but was gradually pushed out, much to his regret.
鈥淚 made a mistake,鈥� he later said. 鈥淭he mistake I made was losing control of the company.鈥�
That same year 鈥� 1996 鈥� saw the birth of Fox 草莓传媒 Channel and arrival of a new dominant mogul in cable news, Rupert Murdoch. Political opinion became the stock in trade of networks like Fox 草莓传媒 and MSNBC.
Building TBS SuperStation
Robert Edward Turner III was born Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati. When he was 9, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he grew up. After being expelled from Brown University for sneaking a coed into his room, Turner came to Atlanta to work as an account executive for his domineering father鈥檚 billboard company, Turner Advertising.
After his father鈥檚 1963 suicide, Turner took over the company. In 1970, he bought an independent UHF station with a weak signal that didn鈥檛 even cover Atlanta.
On Dec. 17, 1976, he began transmitting the station to cable systems around the country via satellite. It became the TBS SuperStation. 鈥淚t was the start of something bigger than we ever imagined,鈥� Turner said in 1996.
TBS鈥� motley collection of old movies and 鈥淭he Andy Griffith Show鈥� reruns was augmented by Turner鈥檚 acquisition of baseball鈥檚 Atlanta Braves. Perennial doormats, the Braves slowly attracted fans across the nation through their superstation exposure and in the 1980s began declaring themselves 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Team.鈥�
Turner, who early on donned a uniform and managed one game, helped open baseball鈥檚 free-agent price wars by signing pitcher Andy Messersmith.
In the 1980s, Turner went deeply into debt to buy MGM, a move again greeted with skepticism.
But the acquisition gave his company a huge library of vintage movies that eventually were parlayed into the TNT and Turner Classic Movies networks. His devotion to older movies earned Turner a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004. He was also criticized for adding color to classic movies like 鈥淐asablanca,鈥� which he said he did to make them appealing to a younger audience.
TBS also acquired the Hanna-Barbera animation library, which led to the launch of the Cartoon Network.
鈥淗e sees the obvious before most people do,鈥� Bob Wright, former president and CEO of NBC, told The New Yorker in 2001. 鈥淲e all look at the same picture, but Ted sees what you don鈥檛 see. And after he sees it, it becomes obvious to everybody.鈥�
He revealed his ambitions as a younger man: 鈥淚 used to tell people I wanted to become the world鈥檚 greatest sailor, businessman and lover all at the same time.鈥�
Asked to share the secret to his success, he said: 鈥淓arly to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.鈥�
Acquiring sports teams and land
For much of his life a partying roustabout who wooed beautiful women with a roguish charm, the lean, mustachioed sportsman married three times. He was married to Fonda from 1991 to 2001. She quit acting while married to Turner, but tired of his philandering and divorced him, although they remained friends.
鈥淗e was sexy. He was brilliant. He had 2 million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay,鈥� Fonda said of her relationship with Turner.
Turner had an unexpected friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, bonding over hunting and arguments about politics over rum and cigars. A once bitter rival who compared Fox鈥檚 Murdoch to Adolf Hitler, they later reconciled over a mutual concern over the environment.
Turner built a sports empire, at one point owning professional baseball, basketball and hockey teams in Atlanta. He was best remembered at the helm of the Atlanta Braves, turning the doormats into postseason regulars by the 1990s. Their stadium, built for the 1996 Olympics, was named Ted Turner Field. The Braves replaced it in 2016 with a newer stadium north of Atlanta.
Perhaps Turner鈥檚 greatest love was for the land. He acquired millions of acres in ranches complete with roaming buffalo and was largest private landholder. He spoke often of reviving the West鈥檚 bison herds, and in 2002 started a restaurant chain serving bison burgers, Ted鈥檚 Montana Grill. Researchers at Texas A&M University credited his donation of a few bulls in 2005 with helping increase the genetic diversity of the last herd of southern Plains bison.
He had a net worth of $2.5 billion in 2023, but had dropped off Forbes magazine鈥檚 ranking of the 400 richest Americans in 2021.
During a stock market bust, Turner鈥檚 net worth went from nearly $10 billion to about $2 billion in two-and-a-half years.
鈥淭o put this in perspective, I lost nearly $8 billion in 30 months,鈥� he wrote in his autobiography, 鈥淐all Me Ted,鈥� in 2008. 鈥淭hat means that, on average, my net worth dropped by about $67 million 鈥減er week,鈥� or nearly $10 million 鈥減er day, every day, for two and a half years.鈥�
He had enough time, and money, to devote to such lofty goals as promoting world peace and protecting the environment.
鈥淪ee, my life is more an adventure than a quest to make money. Adventure is going out and doing something for the pure hell of it,鈥� Turner once said. 鈥淵ou just want to see if you can do it, period. There鈥檚 no thought of gain other than your own satisfaction.鈥�
鈥楾he Mouth of the South鈥�
Through the years, Turner鈥檚 antics occasionally overshadowed his business activities.
Fresh from skippering his boat 鈥淐ourageous鈥� to the America鈥檚 Cup title in 1977, a very inebriated Turner was captured by TV cameras stretched out on the floor at the victory celebration.
Turner managed to insult many with his shoot-from-the-lip style. An atheist since his only sister died of lupus at age 17, he called Christians 鈥渓osers鈥� and 鈥淛esus-freaks,鈥� later apologizing for both remarks.
He once suggested in a speech that unemployed Black people be used to haul mobile missiles with ropes 鈥渓ike the Egyptians building the pyramids.鈥� After civil rights leaders demanded an apology, he said he was just joking.
Other times, his humor saved him from potentially awkward situations, like when he talked to an audience in Berlin in 1999. 鈥淵ou know, you Germans had a bad century,鈥� Turner said, according to The New Yorker. 鈥淵ou were on the wrong side of two wars. You were the losers. I know what that鈥檚 like. When I bought the Atlanta Braves, we couldn鈥檛 win, either. You guys can turn it around. You can start making the right choices. If the Atlanta Braves could do it, then Germany can do it.鈥�
Turner, father of five children, grabbed a leadership role in American philanthropy with his Sept. 18, 1997, pledge to give $1 billion, or $100 million a year for 10 years, to United Nations charities. Even as Turner鈥檚 fortune shrank after the AOL Time Warner merger, he continued giving money to the U.N., calling it the best hope for peace.
Dedication to various causes
He promoted a range of humanitarian causes. Turner joined former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn to start the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to reducing the threat of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Turner fretted publicly about the world鈥檚 problems.
鈥淚f I had to predict, the way things are going, I鈥檇 say the chances are about 50-50 that humanity will be extinct in 50 years,鈥� Turner said in 2003. 鈥淲eapons of mass destruction, disease, I mean this global warming is scaring the living daylights out of me.鈥�
As he poured millions into nonprofits on a global scale, Turner was also fond of spreading his wealth in small ways. He once gave $500 to a volunteer fire department that helped extinguish a blaze on one of his ranches. Another time he lent personal paintings for an exhibit at a Bozeman, Montana, museum.
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Bauder, a longtime media writer, retired from The Associated Press in 2026. Former Associated Press correspondent Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report.
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