Overview
- Turner Enterprises announced Wednesday that Ted Turner died at 87, and CNN chief Mark Thompson praised him as the network’s guiding spirit while no official cause of death was released.
- Turner launched CNN in 1980 after building a national cable “superstation” and later expanded his media holdings to TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies and pro sports teams such as the Atlanta Braves.
- He made one of the largest personal pledges to global causes with a promised $1 billion gift to the United Nations and created the United Nations Foundation, while also funding conservation including bison restoration on vast U.S. ranches.
- Turner disclosed Lewy body dementia in 2018 and was treated for pneumonia in early 2025, and he is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren and two great‑grandchildren.
- His round-the-clock news model changed how TV covers wars, elections and disasters worldwide, and the assets he built later became part of what is now Warner Bros. Discovery.