Biography

Ted Turner was one of the most important figures in media history, a visionary American businessman, television producer and public figure best known for founding Cable News Network, the first 24-hour cable news channel CNN. During his long career in telecommunication business he was the owner of cable television networks including Superstation WTBS, various international versions of Cable News Network (CNN), CNN Headline News, CNN Financial, Turner Network Television (TNT), Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Cartoon Network. His ambitions on global political arena resulted in founding the Goodwill Games in response to multinational boycott of Olympic Games during the 1980es, thus allowing the athletes who were restricted from the Olympics to perform at alternative venues in an effort to warm the harsh political climate during the Cold War. His business career and public activities had an impact on American culture.

He was born Robert Edward Turner III, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of Florence Rooney and Robert Edward Turner II, a billboard company owner. Young Turner was raised Episcopalian. He attended Brown University and was captain of sailing team. Before his graduation, Turner was expelled for having a female guest in his dorm room. 30 years later, in 1989, he was awarded an honorary BA degree from Brown University when he returned to campus to deliver the keynote address for the National Association of College Broadcasters. By that time, Turner was known to the world as the owner of Turner Broadcasting System and the founder of CNN.

During the Vietnam War era, and following his father's suicide, Turner inherited and expanded his father's advertising business. At the same time, he began buying radio stations, but in 1969 he sold his radio stations and founded Turner Communications Group for which bought a struggling television station in Atlanta and made it profitable. In 1976 Turner's WTCG-TV started using satellite and cable services and the number of subscribers eventually grew to two million. Turner's net worth rose to 100 million dollars and he bought a five-thousand acre plantation in South Carolina, for two million dollars. He later bought massive pieces of land in several states and was owner of 1.5 million acres across the United States.

In 1978, Turner and media executive Reese Schonfeld agreed to launch a 24-hour cable news channel that would be operated by a staff of 300 and use an all electronic room and satellites for all transmissions. To subsidize the new company, CNN, in 1979 Turner sold his television company WTCG-TV for 20 million dollars. CNN was founded and established its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Reese Schonfeld became first president and CEO of CNN and Turner was chairman of the board and co-founder of the network which eventually became one of the largest global information systems.

In 1986, Turner acquired the MGM/UA studio from Kirk Kirkorian for 1,5 billion dollars. The deal included a vast library of over two thousand movies made before 1986. As the new owner of thousands of black and white films, Turner made an effort to colorize such masterpieces, as Casablanca, and syndicated the movies to television stations across the USA. Opposition to Turner's colorization of original films arose among cine-files, film critics, actors and directors across the country. In response to the conflict around Turner's colorization of films, the Library of Congress established the National Film Registry to preserve American films in their original format.

In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System was merged with Time Warner, and Turner was vice chairman and head of Time Warner and Turner's cable networks division until 2001. That same year, Time Warner was purchased by America online (AOL) to become AOL Time Warner, and briefly remained the largest entertainment and information company in the world. Turner, as the biggest Time Warner's shareholder, had lost as much as seven billion dollars in the wake of that merger.

Turner was a long time supporter of the Democratic Party and its candidates, such as, the former US President Jimmy Carter, and the Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential elections. As philanthropist, Turner supported numerous environmental initiatives. He donated one billion dollars to the United Nations to create the United Nations Foundation, a public charity to support the United Nations, and he served as chairman of the board of the United Nations Foundation. Ted Turner died at his home in Florida, at the age of 87.