Ted Turner, the brash sportsman and entrepreneur whose ambition and instincts led to a media empire that included groundbreaking news network CNN, has died, CNN reported yesterday citing a press release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.
No cause of death was given.
In September 2018 Turner revealed that he had Lewy body dementia, a degenerative nerve disease.
One nickname was not enough for a personality as roguish and bold as Turner’s. He was known variously as the “Mouth of the South,” “Captain Outrageous,” and “Terrible Ted.”
He became a billionaire by taking over his father’s billboard business, buying a television station in 1970 and parlaying that into what would become a vast ground-breaking television group.
Turner became one of the most powerful figures in US media and entertainment, his networks specialising in news, sports, re-runs, and old movies.
But he did not stop there. He added the MGM/UA movie studio to his portfolio before making an even bigger move – merging his Turner Broadcasting System with Time Warner in 1996.
Turner headed the new company’s cable networks division and was its leading shareholder, but he had trouble fitting into a corporate system after decades of free-wheeling as his own boss. He eventually lost control of his networks.