Ted Turner

He was married to Judy Nye from 1960 to 1964. His second marriage was to Jane Shirley Smith whom he wed in 1965 and divorced in 1988. He married actress Jane Fonda in 1991. This marriage ended in 2001. He has five children.

He was the eldest son of Robert Edward Turner Jr. and Florence. His father was a successful businessman who owned Turner Advertising. In spite of being a good provider, Ted had a difficult childhood. Robert suffered from bipolar disorder and had extreme mood swings. He used to physically abuse Ted.

His father went to serve in the Navy when World War II broke out and took his wife and daughter with him, leaving behind Ted. The young boy felt abandoned.

He was sent to a boarding school at Cincinnati while his family was away. After returning from the war his father enrolled him at the Georgia Military Academy.

He enrolled in Brown University in 1956 where his major was economics. However, he was expelled from the university for having a woman in his dormitory room.

He joined his father’s business after being thrown out of the university. His father made him the assistant manager of Turner Advertising’s Atlanta branch. His company had taken huge debts and the pressure of it affected his father’s health.

Suffering from bipolar disorder and unable to cope with the financial burdens, his father committed suicide in 1963 leaving Ted, just 24, as in charge of the indebted company.

Ted threw himself in the work partly to deal with his grief and partly because of his ambitions. Soon the company paid off its debts and started registering good profits. By the late 1960s his company had grown a lot.

After dealing in radio stations, he expanded into television and purchased a failing UHF station in Atlanta. He renamed his company to Turner Communications and renamed the station to WTCG. Initially he ran old movies and cartoons on the station.

By the mid 1970s FCC regulations started permitting cable television services to transmit programming from remote stations. In 1976, the WTCG-TV Superstation began to broadcast old movies, comedy reruns, cartoons and sports specials nationwide to subscribers. The viewership of his channel grew manifold and soon he had 2 million subscribers and his net worth reached $100 million.

He is the founder of the 24-hour news channel CNN, the first all-news television channel in the United States. The channel has numerous affiliates and is available in over 100 million U.S. households.

He is a philanthropist who plays an active role in the United Nations Association. He donated $1 billion to the United Nations for creating the United Nations Foundation and serves on its board of directors.