Ted Turner, who revolutionized television by launching CNN as the world’s first 24-hour cable news network and transformed himself from a billboard salesman’s son into one of America’s most colorful media titans and generous philanthropists, has died. He was 87.
Turner Enterprises confirmed in a statement that Turner died peacefully Wednesday, May 6, 2026, with family at his side. A private service is planned, and a public memorial will be announced later. He had largely stepped away from public view after revealing in September 2018 that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder affecting memory and cognitive function. He was hospitalized with a mild case of pneumonia in January 2025.
President Trump, despite being a frequent critic of the modern CNN, praised Turner following the announcement. Trump 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!”
From Billboards To A Broadcasting Empire
Born Robert Edward Turner III on Nov. 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Florence and Ed Turner, he grew up around his father’s billboard advertising business. After enrolling at Brown University in 1956, he was expelled in 1959 — reportedly for having a woman in his dorm room — and subsequently served in the U.S. Coast Guard.
He joined the family firm in 1960 as general manager of a branch office. His father’s suicide in 1963 left the 24-year-old as president and CEO. After acquiring several radio stations, he renamed the company Turner Communications and made the pivotal decision to purchase a money-losing UHF television station in Atlanta.
That station evolved into WTBS, which became the cornerstone of Turner Broadcasting System Inc. after a 1979 rebrand. The “superstation” TBS, transmitted via satellite, reached 2 million cable homes and fueled the cable and satellite TV boom of the mid-1970s. TNT followed, along with groundbreaking original programming on basic cable, plus Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. He briefly owned MGM, selling the studio and name while retaining its priceless film library.
The Birth Of 24-Hour News
Cable News Network debuted June 1, 1980, as the nation’s first 24-hour cable news network and the first dedicated rolling news channel in the United States. Critics derided it as the “Chicken Noodle Network.” The ridicule didn’t last.
CNN established credibility through breathless coverage of the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986 and the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. The network reached maturity with its live rolling coverage from Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. President George H.W. Bush relied on CNN for updates during the crisis, demonstrating the network’s influence.
“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.”
Captain Outrageous And The Mouth Of The South
His unpredictable, outspoken personality generated the nicknames “Captain Outrageous” and “The Mouth of the South.” He lived for a time inside CNN’s Atlanta headquarters, occasionally roaming the newsroom in a bathrobe to debate the day’s news.
His competitive drive extended to sports. A world-class yachtsman, he 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.
In 1976, he bought the Atlanta Braves — partly to fuel programming on his superstation — and the team won the World Series in 1995 under his ownership. He also acquired the Atlanta Hawks in 1977 and later the Atlanta Thrashers. He named himself manager of the Braves in 1977, triggering a dispute with Major League Baseball; the Braves lost his only game in charge.
Turner married three times and had five children. His most high-profile marriage was to actress Jane Fonda from 1991 until 2001.
A Billion-Dollar Conscience
After receiving a United Nations award in 1997, Turner shocked the philanthropic world by pledging $1 billion, one-third of his wealth at the time, to establish the United Nations Foundation. He was among the first billionaires to give away enormous sums while still alive rather than bequeathing them.
“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.
He co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative and campaigned for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons while donating millions to fight climate change, fossil fuels, and overpopulation. He even produced “Captain Planet and the Planeteers,” a Saturday-morning cartoon with an environmental message. In 2002, he opened Ted’s Montana Grill, an eco-friendly chain whose flagship bison burger came from herds raised on his own land — part of vast holdings that helped reintroduce bison across the American West. Earlier this year, he received 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.
