Background

Ted Turner was born as Robert Edward Turner III, on November 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the United States. He is the eldest child of parents Robert Edward Turner Jr. and Florence (Rooney) Turner. From an early age, he was called Ted, while his father, Robert Edward Turner, Jr., was known as Ed.

Ted had a difficult childhood. In spite of being a good provider, Ed suffered from bipolar disorder and had extreme mood swings. He used to physically abuse Ted. Years later, as an adult, Ted Turner would discover he too was bipolar.

When World War II broke out, Ed signed up for the Navy. In 1941, he brought his wife and Turner's sister with him to the Gulf Coast but left Turner behind feeling horribly abandoned. When Ted was nine, Ed Turner moved the family to Savannah, Georgia.

Education

During World War II, Ted was sent to a boarding school at Cincinnati while his family was away. Ted attended Georgia Military Academy, near Atlanta. At age nine, he began sailing and soon developed a passion for sailboat racing. By age 11, he was competing in the junior regatta of the Savannah Yacht Club.

Ted remained at Georgia Military Academy until high school. At 12, Ted Turner was sent to the McCallie School, a military preparatory school, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Although he balked at the school’s discipline in his first years there, he later emerged as a leader among his classmates, winning the Tennessee debating championship. In 1955 Ted, representing his high school, won the Tennessee state debate contest, but he was also something of a rebel.

His curriculum included military training, one of Turner's favorite subjects. After completing his course load at McCallie, Turner hoped to sign up with the United States Naval Academy, but his father insisted he apply to Harvard. Turner's grades weren’t good enough for Harvard, so in 1956, he enrolled in Brown University instead.

He was suspended from Brown on two occasions. First, he was suspended because of a rowdy party. Although he was allowed to return six months later, after a tour of duty with the Coast Guard. Turner was expelled for the second time for breaking dormitory rules and having a woman in his dorm room in 1959. The same year his parents divorced.

Career

Turner joined the family business, which was based in Atlanta, and became the general manager of one of the company’s branch offices in 1960. Turner quickly showed a natural talent for business by more than doubling the office’s revenue in his first year. When Turner’s father bought out a competitor in 1962, the costly buyout and subsequent debt placed the company in a tenuous financial condition.

Fearing bankruptcy and struggling to cope with bipolar disorder, Ed shot himself to death in March 1963. Turner dealt with his grief by throwing himself into his work. Following his father’s suicide, Turner took over the ailing business and restored it to profitability. He took over the roles of president and chief executive officer at Turner Advertising, renamed Turner Communications in the late 1960s as the company bought several radio stations.

By the end of the decade, Turner Advertising was the largest billboard company in the Southeast, but Ted Turner recognized that his customers were allocating ever-larger shares of their advertising budgets to radio and television, and he sought opportunities in broadcasting. Turner eventually expanded into television, purchasing the rights to old movies and situation comedies. The decision proved highly profitable.

In 1970 Turner purchased a financially troubled UHF television station in Atlanta, and within three years he made it one of the few truly profitable independent stations in the United States. In 1975 Turner’s company was one of the first to use a new communications satellite to broadcast his station (later renamed WTBS, or TBS, the Turner Broadcasting System) to a nationwide cable television audience, thereby greatly increasing revenues.

Turner bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team and began broadcasting its games live. At the end of the year, Turner bought a controlling interest in the Atlanta Hawks basketball team as well and added its games to his broadcast line-up. The combination of live sports, reruns of rural-themed sitcoms, old movies, and professional wrestling won the station a national audience.

In 1976, Turner made a strategic move to reach an even larger audience through the use of satellite technology. He rebranded once again, changing his company’s name to Turner Broadcasting Company. During the late 1970s, he conceived the idea for an all-news network. Turner went on to create two other highly successful and innovative cable television networks: CNN (Cable News Network;1980), the first 24-hour news channel, and TNT (Turner Network Television;1988).

Cable News Network (CNN) first aired in 1980, but six years later it was in the black. In 1985, Turner used some of his profits to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Also in the 1980s, Turner began coloring films but eventually decided the cost was impractical. Turner set off a storm of protest when he authorized the "colonizing" of some of the library’s black-and-white motion pictures.

In 1992, he created the Cartoon Network in addition to launching Turner Network Television (TNT) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). In 1996, with Turner Broadcasting a leader in both the television and Internet industries, Turner sold the company to Time Warner for $7.5 billion dollars. After the merger, Turner stayed on and ran the company’s cable networks, including Home Box Office (HBO).

In 2001, Time Warner merged with America Online (AOL). In 2003 he resigned as vice-chairman of that company, and three years later Turner announced that he would not seek reelection to its board of directors. Turner took a stab at an entirely new business venture, a steakhouse serving bison, called Ted’s Montana Grill.

In 2008 Turner released his autobiography, Call Me Ted.

Achievements

• 

  Ted Turner is the founder of the 24-hour news channel CNN, the first all-news television channel in the United States. The channel has numerous affiliates and is available in over 100 million United States households. During his career, Ted Turner has won recognition for his entrepreneurial acumen; sharp business skills; a vision that transformed television; leadership qualities that won sports championships; and his unprecedented philanthropy.
  
  Throughout his life, Turner has enjoyed many achievements, and he has received various awards in recognition of these. In 1991, Time Magazine named him the Man of the Year, and he was the first media figure to be given this accolade. He was then awarded the Peabody Award in 1998, followed by the Sports Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. The following year, he was the recipient of the News & Documentary Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award. Ted Turner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on April 7, 2004.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Call Me Ted

    (Turner's version of events is frequently interrupted by s...)

    2008

Religion

When he was very young, Turner dreamed of being a missionary. Then his little sister, Mary Jean, got sick at age 12. He watched as she suffered terribly from a rare form of lupus and complications that left her with brain damage and screaming in pain for years until she died. It shook his faith. He could not understand why any God would let an innocent suffer.

Later in his life, Turner was. virulently anti-religious. He has said famously that "Christianity is a religion for losers," even though some of his closest friends have a deep and profound faith. Turner said he respects the position of his religious friends, but he's a skeptic by nature. He described himself as an agnostic, although as a younger man he was an atheist.

In a 2008 interview, Turner said that he no longer considers himself atheist or agnostic. He also confessed that he prays for sick friends, but keeps it short because "I don't want to load up the wires." A few years later, in 2013 he again said that he is agnostic but also added that he still prays for friends when they are sick, because "it can't hurt anything."

Politics

Ted Turner endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton during the 2016 United States presidential election.

Views

As a very wealthy man, Ted Turner has become a philanthropist and has supported many good causes over the years. He founded the Turner Foundation in 1990 with the aim of preserving and conserving the environment throughout the world. In 1997, Turner gifted $1 billion to support the United Nations, in one of the largest philanthropic gestures in history.

In 2001, he donated $31 million to the United States government so that they could pay off a debt to the United Nations. He has also pledged to give $10 million of his fortune to the United Nations every year until his death.

Turner created (2001) the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which sought to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction. He provided extensive funding to conservation efforts through his Turner Foundation (created 1990). Turner was one of the largest landowners in the United States, and many of his ranches were involved in sustainability and ecotourism.

He also co-created and co-wrote the animated children’s series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990-1996), which centers on teenaged environmental activists. He also founded and sponsored the Goodwill Games (1986-2001), citing his hope of easing Cold War tensions through friendly athletic competition.

Ted Turner also signed a Giving Pledge.

Quotations: "Men should be disqualified for public office. Women should run the planet. They're better than us."

"If I only had a little humility I would be perfect."

"The biggest thing I learned from losing? Winning's better."

"To be happy in this world, first you need a cell phone and then you need an airplane. Then you're truly wireless."

"Life is a game. Money is how we keep score."

"Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise!"

Personality

One of Ted Turner’s greatest passions is sailing, and this is something that he has always enjoyed in his spare time. He began entering sailing competitions at the Savannah Yacht Club when he was 26, and in 1964, he competed in the Olympic trials. In 1977, he won the America’s Cup, which is one of the most prestigious sailing competitions. The yacht in which he sailed was called Courageous, and he had the name of his yacht emblazoned on the sweater he wore during the competition. He had previously attempted to win the cup in 1974 but was unsuccessful on that occasion. He won the Fastnet Race in 1979 with the challenge of sailing through a storm that killed 15 of the competition’s participants. Due to his sailing prowess, Turner was inducted into America’s Cup Hall of Fame in 1993. He has also been inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011.

Physical Characteristics: In 2018 Turner announced that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia.

Interests

• sailing, fishing

• Politicians

  Hillary Clinton, Fidel Castro

• Writers

  Life Is What You Make It by Peter Buffett, The Odyssey by Homer, The Iliad by Homer, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, The Aeneid by Virgil

• Sport & Clubs

  football

Connections

Turner has been married three times. His first wife was Julia Gayle Nye, who he married in 1960. They had two children together, Laura and Robert Edward IV, who is known as Teddy. A few years after having their children, the couple divorced. In 1964, he married for a second time to Janie Smith. They had two sons, Beau and Rhett, followed by a daughter, Jennie. Although they were married for more than 20 years, the marriage ended in divorce. In 1991, he married his third wife, actress Jane Fonda. The couple were married for ten years but had no children together. Turner and Fonda divorced in 2001.

Father:

Robert Edward Turner II

Ed Turner was a charming, gifted salesman who was on the road or at work far more than he was at home. Intent on teaching his son obedience, Ed Turner became more formal, no longer hugging him but greeting him with a handshake.

Mother:

Florence Turner

former spouse:

Julia (Judy) Gale Nye

On June 23, 1960, Ted married Judy Gale Nye, a young woman he had met while pursuing his passion for sailing. She proved to be his match as a sailor and was tough and outspoken, but the marriage became a rivalry so intense that Ted once rammed her boat during a race to prevent her from beating him. The couple divorced in 1962.

Daughter:

Laura Turner Seydel

Laura Turner Seydel works with and supports organizations that address urgent challenges affecting the health, functionality, and vitality of our life support system: air, water, land, food, biodiversity, and climate.

Son:

Robert "Teddy" Edward Turner IV

Teddy has served in numerous business capacities including promotions manager at Turner Home Entertainment, as well as a project manager at Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

Teddy Turner currently teaches high school economics at the Charleston Collegiate School in Charleston, South Carolina. He also serves on the board of the South Carolina Aquarium, the Children’s Museum of the Low Country, the Jane Smith Turner Foundation, serves as Chairman of the Board of the South Carolina Maritime Foundation and was a member of the Board of Trustees of St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

former spouse:

Jane "Janie" Smith

Son:

Beau Turner

Beau Turner is involved in numerous charitable organizations related to environmental conservation and preservation around the world. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Turner Endangered Species Fund and Director of Natural Resources and Biodiversity for Turner Enterprises, Inc.

Daughter:

Sara Jean "Jennie" Turner Garlington

Since Jennie Garlington was exposed to environmental issues at a young age, she launched a lifetime commitment to stewardship and sustainability. Since 1990, she has honed her environmental awareness as a Trustee of the Turner Foundation. Jennie previously served for 12 years on the board of directors for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the National Zoo.

Son:

Rhett Turner

A highly gifted filmmaker and photographer, Rhett Turner is president of Red Sky Productions, a state of the art international film production company focusing on documentary films for global television audiences and private corporations.

He is well versed in every aspect of film production and has served as a camera operator, photographer, producer, and editor on several projects.

former spouse:

Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda married Ted Turner in 1991, but the marriage was a fractured one, Fonda revealing in her 2005 memoir that the media mogul repeatedly cheated on her just one month after the wedding.

Sister:

Mary Jane Turner

Mary Jane, who was Ted's only sibling, died at 17.

opponent:

Rupert Murdoch

Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch intensely dislike each other. Turner once famously threatened to "squish him like a bug."

Acquaintance:

Richard Branson

References

• Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News
  2020
• It Ain't As Easy As It Looks: Ted Turner's Amazing Story
  1993
• Lead Follow or Get Out of the Way: The Story of Ted Turner
  1981
• Last Stand: Ted Turner's Quest To Save a Troubled Planet
  2013