Ted Turner, the restless force who reshaped modern media while leaving fingerprints across professional sports during his Braves ownership, has died at 87. He passed away on Wednesday at his home near Tallahassee, Florida, surrounded by family, according to a spokesperson for Turner Enterprises.
For years, Turner had been battling Lewy body dementia, a degenerative condition he publicly disclosed in 2018. The illness steadily eroded cognitive function while introducing physical symptoms often associated with Parkinson’s disease. Even as his health declined, the scale of what he built, and how aggressively he built it, remained unmistakable.
A Relentless Architect of Modern Media
Turner’s rise began with a struggling family billboard business, which he rebranded as Turner Communications Group in 1970. From there, he moved quickly into broadcasting, acquiring television stations and pushing their reach beyond traditional limits. In 1976, he launched TBS using satellite distribution, a move that expanded a local Atlanta station into a national presence. Four years later came CNN, a 24-hour news network that defied industry skepticism and permanently altered how news was delivered and consumed.
By 1996, Turner sold his media empire to Time Warner in a $7.3 billion stock deal. Though he was promised a continued role, his influence within CNN gradually diminished, a development that reportedly frustrated him. Still, the network he founded remained central to global news coverage.
From “Loserville” to Braves Championship Ambitions
His ambitions extended well beyond the media. When Turner purchased the Atlanta Braves in 1976, the team was coming off a losing season. He made no effort to hide his intentions, declaring he wanted to erase Atlanta’s reputation as a losing city. Within months, he stirred controversy and headlines by signing Andy Messersmith, helping ignite baseball’s free agency era. In 1977, he took the unusual step of managing the team for a single game, a move that captured both his impulsiveness and desire for control.
Turner applied a similar approach to basketball, buying the Atlanta Hawks in 1977 to prevent their relocation. Under his ownership, the team reached the playoffs 15 times. His influence was later recognized when the franchise retired a jersey in his honor in 2004.
His reach stretched into other arenas as well, professional wrestling with WCW, international competition through the Goodwill Games, and even sailing, where he won the America’s Cup in 1977 as skipper of Courageous.
A Late-Life Turn Toward Global Giving
Later in life, his attention shifted toward philanthropy. In 1997, he pledged $1 billion to support United Nations initiatives, one of the largest charitable commitments ever made at the time. He also joined The Giving Pledge, committing the majority of his wealth to charitable causes.
Turner is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. His life leaves behind a record defined by risk, scale, and a consistent willingness to act on instinct, whether in business, sports, or global giving.
