Ted Turner, who revolutionized television by launching the first 24-hour cable news network and transformed a struggling Atlanta station into a global media empire, has died at 87.
The broadcasting pioneer passed away peacefully Wednesday, May 6, 2026, with family by his side, Turner Enterprises said in a statement. A private service is planned, with details of a public memorial to follow. Turner had stepped away from public view in recent years after revealing in September 2018 that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder that impairs memory and cognitive ability. He was hospitalized in January 2025 for a mild pneumonia.
News of his death brought immediate tributes. President Trump, a frequent critic of the modern CNN, called Turner “one of the greats of broadcast history, and a friend of mine,” adding, “Whenever I needed him, he was there, always willing to fight for a good cause!”
The Birth of 24-Hour News
Turner made history June 1, 1980, when Cable News Network went on the air as America’s first 24-hour cable news network and the first channel devoted entirely to rolling news coverage. Critics dismissed it as the “Chicken Noodle Network.” The mockery didn’t last.
The network proved critics wrong with wall-to-wall coverage of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan and the 1986 Challenger space shuttle disaster. But CNN’s defining moment arrived during the 1991 Gulf War, when its live rolling coverage from Iraq captivated the world. Even President George H.W. Bush relied on CNN for crisis updates, cementing the network’s credibility.
“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 honoring the founder. “He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN.”
From Billboards to a Broadcasting Empire
Born Robert Edward Turner III on Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio, Turner was raised around his father Ed’s billboard advertising business. His mother was Florence Turner. He attended Brown University starting in 1956 but was expelled in 1959 — reportedly for having a woman in his dorm room — and subsequently served in the U.S. Coast Guard.
After his father’s suicide in 1963, the 24-year-old assumed control as president and CEO of the family firm, where he’d been general manager of a branch office since 1960. Turner expanded beyond billboards by acquiring radio stations and renaming the company Turner Communications. His boldest move came when he purchased a struggling UHF television station in Atlanta.
He transformed that station into WTBS, which became the cornerstone of Turner Broadcasting System Inc., rebranded in 1979. The “superstation” TBS, transmitted via satellite to 2 million cable homes, became a driving force in the cable and satellite television explosion of the mid-1970s. Turner expanded further with TNT, broke new ground with original programming on basic cable, and established Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. He briefly owned MGM, ultimately selling the studio and name while retaining its valuable film library.
Captain Outrageous and the Mouth of the South
Known as “The Mouth of the South” and “Captain Outrageous,” Turner’s flamboyant personality was legendary. He lived for a time inside CNN’s Atlanta headquarters, sometimes wandering the newsroom in a bathrobe to debate the day’s news.
His competitive drive extended to sports. Turner won the America’s Cup in 1977 and the Fastnet race, becoming the first person named Yachtsman of the Year four times. After a Murdoch-sponsored yacht collided with his boat during a 1983 Australian race, Turner challenged Rupert Murdoch to a fist fight.
Turner purchased the Atlanta Braves in 1976 — partly to supply content for his superstation — and celebrated a World Series championship in 1995 under his ownership. He also owned the Atlanta Hawks, acquired in 1977, and later the Atlanta Thrashers. In 1977, he famously named himself manager of the Braves, sparking a dispute with Major League Baseball; the Braves lost his only game in charge.
His highest-profile marriage was to actress Jane Fonda from 1991 until 2001. Turner was married three times and had five children.
A Billion-Dollar Conscience
Following a United Nations award ceremony in 1997, Turner shocked the philanthropic world by committing $1 billion to establish the United Nations Foundation — one-third of his wealth at the time. He pioneered a new model of billionaire giving by donating massive sums during his lifetime instead of after death.
“Everybody could be doing more! Nobody’s doing enough. I could be doing more!” he once said of his drive to make the world safer.
Turner co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative and worked toward the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons while donating millions to combat climate change, fossil fuels, and overpopulation. He produced “Captain Planet and the Planeteers,” a Saturday-morning cartoon with an environmental message. In 2002, he launched Ted’s Montana Grill, an eco-friendly restaurant chain featuring bison burgers from herds on his own land — holdings that helped restore bison populations across the American West. He was honored earlier this year with the 2026 Sierra Club Vanguard Award for his decades of leadership in environmental conservation, land preservation, and climate advocacy.
Named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1991, Turner leaves behind a media landscape he largely built himself — and a philanthropic blueprint that reshaped how the ultra-wealthy give.
