Ted Turner, Founder of CNN and Media Pioneer, Dies at 87
Ted Turner, the media visionary who built CNN from a single bold idea into the world's first 24-hour cable news network, died Wednesday, May 6, 2026. He was 87. Turner Enterprises confirmed his death in a statement. A cause of death was not immediately released, though Turner had been living with Lewy body dementia since disclosing his diagnosis in 2018.
His passing marks the end of one of the most consequential careers in American broadcasting history — and the life of a man who, by almost any measure, was too large for any single description to contain.
The Idea That Changed Everything
Turner launched CNN on June 1, 1980. At the time, the "Big Three" network news programs — ABC, CBS, and NBC — still dominated American television, and the idea of a channel dedicated entirely to news, running around the clock, was widely dismissed as absurd. Turner didn't care. Before the network debuted, he famously told staff: "We won't be signing off until the world ends. We'll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event."
CNN didn't just survive. It redefined what news could be and how quickly it could reach people. It became the go-to source during the Gulf War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and every major global event that followed. The model Turner invented — continuous, live, around-the-clock coverage — is now simply how news works.
Building an Empire
CNN was the crown jewel, but it was far from the only thing Turner built. He started his career by taking over his father's billboard business in 1963 after his father's death, then pivoted to television in 1970 when he acquired an Atlanta UHF station. Through sheer force of will and a series of calculated risks, he transformed it into TBS — the "superstation" that used satellite technology to broadcast nationally, helping ignite the cable television revolution of the 1970s.
Not every Turner move landed without a fight. After acquiring MGM's library of more than 4,000 films in the mid-1980s, he colorized hundreds of classic black-and-white movies — including Casablanca and It's a Wonderful Life — a decision that sparked one of Hollywood's most heated cultural battles, with legends including Jimmy Stewart, Orson Welles, and Katharine Hepburn publicly condemning it. Turner was characteristically unbothered: "The last time I checked, I owned the films," he said.
He followed TBS with TNT, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, and Turner Broadcasting System, which he eventually sold to Time Warner. The deal made him a billionaire — and briefly one of the richest men in the world — before the AOL-Time Warner merger in 2000 wiped out roughly 80% of his wealth. He said later he had voted for the merger against his better judgment. It cost him his position in the company, too. He was ousted not long after.
He owned the Atlanta Braves from 1976 to 1996 — the team won the World Series in 1995 under his ownership — and the Atlanta Hawks from 1977 to 1999. In 1977, he famously appointed himself manager of the Braves for a single game, a move that led to a dispute with Major League Baseball. The team lost.
Jane Fonda and the Decade That Defined His Personal Life
Turner married actress and activist Jane Fonda on December 21, 1991, at his sprawling ranch near Capps, Florida. The pairing was one of the more unlikely romances of the decade — Hollywood royalty meets billionaire media cowboy — and it captivated the public from the start. Turner had pursued Fonda aggressively, calling her out of the blue in 1990 after learning she was divorcing activist Tom Hayden. She declined initially. He persisted. Six months later, she agreed to a date.
Together they were one of the defining power couples of the 1990s, splitting time between red carpets and Turner's Montana ranch. They co-founded the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential (GCAPP) in 1995, a charity Fonda would continue championing long after the marriage ended. As recently as November 2025, she credited Turner's support as essential to its survival: "Had I not been with Ted, had he not stood by me with his love and support, we never would have survived."
The marriage didn't last. The couple separated in January 2000 and finalized their divorce in May 2001, with Fonda citing the marriage as "irretrievably broken." Both acknowledged communication difficulties and long stretches apart as factors. Turner, in his 2008 memoir Call Me Ted, admitted they had "trouble communicating" even when together and that couples therapy couldn't save them.
Despite the split, they remained close. Fonda has called Turner her "favorite ex-husband" and attended events in his honor even after his dementia diagnosis. Turner, for his part, said in interviews that Fonda was the love of his life. "When you love somebody, and you really love them," he said, "you never stop loving them, no matter how hard you try."
Beyond Broadcasting
Turner's ambitions extended well past cable television. He was an accomplished yachtsman who captained the yacht Courageous to a 4-0 sweep in the 1977 America's Cup. He founded the Goodwill Games in 1986 to ease Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. He created Captain Planet and the Planeteers, an environmental animated series that ran from 1990 to 1996.
His philanthropy was transformative in scale. In 1997, after receiving an award from the United Nations, he donated $1 billion — roughly one-third of his wealth at the time — to create the United Nations Foundation. He co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative in 2001 with former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to reducing global reliance on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
He became one of the largest private landowners in the United States, amassing nearly two million acres across eight states and three ranches in Argentina. He used the land to build the largest commercial bison herd in North America — some 45,000 animals — and launched Ted's Montana Grill in 2002, a restaurant chain built around bison meat.
The Man Behind the Myth
Turner's nicknames told their own story. "The Mouth of the South" captured his outspoken, no-filter style. "Captain Outrageous" reflected his willingness to say whatever he was thinking, whenever he was thinking it. He ran into trouble regularly for off-the-cuff comments about religion, world affairs, and public figures. He didn't seem particularly bothered by any of it.
"I don't have any idea what I'm going to say," he once told The New Yorker. "I say what comes to my mind."
Time magazine named him Man of the Year in 1991. His 2008 autobiography was titled simply Call Me Ted.
In September 2018, just over a month before his 80th birthday, Turner disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder that affects memory and cognitive function. In early 2025, he was hospitalized with pneumonia before recovering at a rehabilitation facility.
What He Left Behind
CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson spoke for many in the industry when he responded to the news Wednesday morning. "Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgment," Thompson said. "He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN. Ted is the giant on whose shoulders we stand."
Turner himself called CNN the "greatest achievement" of his life — no small statement from a man who also won the America's Cup, owned World Series champions, gave away a billion dollars, helped reintroduce bison to the American West, and spent a decade as one half of the most talked-about couple in America.
He is survived by his five children, 14 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
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