Ted Turner

Ted Turner, born in 1938, American business executive and sports enthusiast, one of the most influential television executives of the late 20th century.

Born Robert Edward Turner III in Cincinnati, Ohio, he was educated at Georgia Military Academy and Brown University. After his father committed suicide in 1963, Turner inherited the family billboard-advertising business. In 1970 he bought a failing UHF (ultrahigh frequency) television station in Atlanta, Georgia, and by 1975 Turner had transformed it into the first “superstation,” WTBS, by transmitting low-cost sports and entertainment programs via satellite to cable systems throughout the country. This was a highly profitable innovation that accelerated the spread of cable television nationwide. Turner bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team in 1976 and the Atlanta Hawks basketball team the following year. In 1977 he skippered the winning yacht Courageous in the America's Cup Race against Australia.

In 1980 Turner launched Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour television news station. Its live coverage of fast-breaking news around the world helped it to become a highly respected news organization, and it eventually achieved a global viewership. In 1985 Turner purchased MGM/UA Entertainment Company, which owned the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and United Artists (UA) film studios. Within months Turner sold most of the company, but he retained MGM’s massive library of films, which included such classics as Gone With the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). In 1988 he launched Turner Network Television (TNT), on which many of the movies were shown. Turner married the American actor Jane Fonda in 1991. In 1993 Turner bought the motion-picture studios New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment.

In 1996 entertainment giant Time Warner acquired Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), the parent company for all of Turner's businesses, in a deal valued at $7.6 billion. The acquisition made Time Warner the world's largest media and entertainment company. Turner became vice chairman of Time Warner's board of directors and head of the division containing TBS businesses. In 1997 Turner pledged to donate $1 billion to the United Nations (UN), one of the largest single charitable donations in history. He designated the money for UN humanitarian causes. Also that year Turner started the Atlanta Thrashers professional hockey team, which began play in 1999.

Turner and Fonda divorced in 2001. Turner resigned as vice chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003, but remained on the company's board of directors. Later that year the company's name changed back to Time Warner, Inc.

Turner also founded the Goodwill Games, a former international sports competition intended to ease tensions during the Cold War. The games were first held in Moscow, then capital of the Soviet Union, in 1986. Later events were held in Seattle, Washington (1990); St. Petersburg, Russia (1994), after the collapse of the Soviet Union; New York City (1998); a Winter Goodwill Games in Lake Placid, New York (2000); and Brisbane, Australia (2001).