Ted Turner, a brash and outspoken television pioneer who raced yachts, owned huge chunks of the American West and transformed the news business by launching CNN in 1980, has died at age 87. He died on May 6. He had announced in 2018 that he was suffering from Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder, and largely disappeared from public life after that.
Few media tycoons had a more tumultuous and varied career, or pursued their passions more publicly, than the man whose nicknames included Captain Outrageous and The Mouth of the South. While serving up quips and wisecracks that entertained and outraged, he created cable TV networks such as the Cartoon Network, TBS and Turner Classic Movies, along with CNN, the first 24-hour news channel in the world; bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks basketball team; and married and divorced Hollywood star Jane Fonda. He won Yachtsman of the Year award more times than anyone else and served as the skipper in a successful defense of the America’s Cup in 1977.
