|
|
|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Ted Turner |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
|
Partner:
|
| Profession:
Musician |
| << Add Ted Turner To Your Favorites |
|
Full Ted Turner Biography
Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938 (1938-11-19) (age 68) in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is best known as the founder of the cable television network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition to CNN, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television. As a philanthropist, he is well known for his $1 billion pledge to the United Nations donated through his United Nations Foundation.
Turner is highly honored among yachtsmen as the winner of at least two great races. In 1977, he successfully defended the America's Cup for the United States as skipper of the yacht Courageous. In the 1979 Fastnet race, made famous by the terrible storm and the resulting loss of life, he skippered the yacht Tenacious to a corrected-time victory.
After five years on the air, CNN found themselves outgrowing their original home, a former country-club on the outskirts of Midtown Atlanta. Ever the visionary, Turner saw another opportunity. He purchased the Omni International from developer Tom Cousins and moved CNN there. The complex was rechristened the CNN Center. As the Omni International, the office/retail/movie theater/hotel complex had never succeeded. Through some clever financial maneuvering, Cousins had managed to keep it solvent, then sold it to Turner along with the Atlanta Hawks. CNN then moved into the end of the tower that once housed The World of Sid & Marty Krofft. Having the presence of Turner gave the Omni a focus that it had never enjoyed before, and it was instrumental in the revival of Atlanta's Downtown area.
Turner used these assets to begin adding new cable channels. In 1988, he introduced Turner Network Television (abbreviated TNT) with a broadcast of Gone with the Wind. TNT was, at least initially, a vehicle for older movies and television shows, but slowly began to add original programming and newer reruns. Since its launch in 1994, Turner Classic Movies adopted the role of broadcasting the older Warner Bros., RKO, and MGM libraries. As with the original TBS, TNT used sports broadcasts and pro wrestling organisation WCW to attract a broader audience; in the former case, signing contracts with NASCAR and the NBA.
In 1992, the MGM library, which as noted above included a number of Warner Brothers properties, including the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies libraries became the core of Cartoon Network. Turner's companies had also purchased Hanna-Barbera Productions by this time, adding additional content. With the 1996 Time Warner merger, the channel's archives gained the post-1948 Warner Bros. cartoon library, thus giving the channel's archive a staggering amount of cartoons.
Before marrying and divorcing Jane Fonda (1991 to 2001), he had been married twice before. His first marriage to Judy Nye lasted four years (1960 to 1964). His second marriage was to Jane Shirley Smith and lasted over 22 years (1965 to 1988). He has five children.
Turner is reportedly involved with several women, including the novelist and playwright Elizabeth Dewberry.
Through Turner Enterprises, he owns 15 ranches in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and South Dakota. Totaling 1.91 million acres his US land-holdings make Turner the largest individual landowner in North America. According to his Ted's Montana Grill website, "Turner Enterprises' mission is to manage Turner lands in an economically sustainable and ecologically sensitive manner, while conserving native species."
Ted Turner sponsors the debates known as the Public Forum Debate of the National Forensic League. Every year, he attends the National Forensic League's National Speech and Debate Tournament and speaks there as well.
On September 19, 2006 Turner in a Reuters Newsmaker conference posited a hypothetical situation, relating to Iran's nuclear position, wherein he stated, "They're a sovereign state. We have 28,000. Why can't they have 10? We don't say anything about Israel -- they've got 100 of them approximately -- or India or Pakistan or Russia." He also facetiously advocated such policies as banning men from public office, "Men should be barred from public office for 100 years in every part of the world...The men have had millions of years where we've been running things. We've screwed it up hopelessly. Let's give it to the women" Reuters News Service September 20, 2006
He is America's largest private landowner, owning approximately two million acres (8,000 km²), which is greater than the land areas of the two smallest states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. According to documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, Turner's land has a higher gross domestic product than the country of Belize. He also has the largest private bison herd in the world, with 40,000 head. In 2002, Turner co-founded Ted's Montana Grill, a restaurant chain specializing in burgers and other entrees made from fresh bison meat.
After the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, Turner founded the Goodwill Games as a statement for peace through sport. |
|
|
| Add Ted Turner Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
| Add Ted Turner Review/Comment
|
HQ Ted Turner Pictures (1) | Random Ted Turner Picture
|
| << Back to the Ted Turner Homepage |
|
