47 Fun Facts About Ted Turner

Time named Turner its Man of the Year for 1991 after CNN's live coverage of which war?

The Gulf War. Viewers around the world watched it unfold on CNN, and Time said the network had changed news from something that has happened into something that is happening as you watch.

Which American broadcast network did Turner try, and fail, to take over in 1985?

CBS. The network spent about $1 billion buying back its own shares to keep him out; within a year Turner had bought the MGM film studio instead.

Why was Turner expelled from Brown University before graduating?

He had a female student in his dorm room, the reason usually given, though Brown had other grievances against him too. Thirty years later the university made its peace and gave him an honorary degree.

What kind of business did Turner take over from his father in March 1963, after his father's suicide?

Billboard advertising. Shortly before his death his father had agreed to sell off the firm's best territory; Ted, 24, refused to accept a smaller company and fought the buyer until the sale was undone.

In which branch of the military did Turner serve to fulfil his national service obligation?

Coast Guard Reserve. Its six-month programme spared him a two-year draft and suited a young man already mad about sailing; he trained at Cape May, New Jersey, and rose no higher than fireman's apprentice.

Turner's father wrote that he 'almost puked' on learning that his son had chosen which major at Brown?

Classics. 'I am appalled, even horrified,' the letter began, asking who on earth his son planned to talk to in Greek; Ted answered by handing it to the student newspaper, which printed it.

Which animal 'co-anchored' the 3 a.m. news with Bill Tush on Turner's early Atlanta station?

A German Shepherd named Rex. Tush dressed the dog in a shirt and collar and fed it peanut butter so that its jaws worked like a newsreader's; his boss, far from objecting, thought it was funny.

How did Turner's Atlanta station become a national 'superstation' in 1976?

It reached cable systems by satellite. Viewers as far away as Alaska were suddenly watching Atlanta's reruns and ball games, and the lowly Braves found themselves billed as 'America's Team'.

From whom did Turner buy the call sign WTBS in 1978 for $50,000?

An MIT student radio station. Call letters can't be sold, so Turner made two $25,000 'donations'; the students bought a new transmitter and renamed themselves WMBR, for Walker Memorial Basement Radio.

In which 1993 Civil War epic, made by his own film company, does Turner die on screen as a Confederate officer?

Gettysburg. Turner planned it as a television miniseries, decided it was too big for the small screen and sent it to cinemas, and fulfilled a lifelong fantasy with a bit part as a dying colonel.

Which nickname did Turner give Braves pitcher Andy Messersmith to wear on his back above the number 17?

Channel. Players wore nicknames on their shirts that season, and 'Channel 17' made the pitcher a walking advertisement for Turner's TV station until the National League's president ruled it an illegal plug.

What job did owner Turner take on for one game during a 1977 Braves losing streak?

Manager. He sent the real one, Dave Bristol, off on a 'scouting trip', pulled on a uniform and lost to Pittsburgh; the league then stopped him, citing a rule that managers may not own stock in their clubs.

Which commissioner suspended Turner for a year in 1977 over his pursuit of free agent Gary Matthews?

Bowie Kuhn. Turner begged to be suspended rather than lose Matthews; Kuhn obliged on both counts, and the banned owner spent the summer of 1977 winning the America's Cup.

What is the 'Turner Doomsday Video', leaked from CNN's archive in 2015?

A military band playing a hymn. Before CNN went on air Turner had armed-forces musicians film 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' for its final sign-off; the tape was filed 'hold for release till end of the world confirmed'.

Which broadcaster's nightly interview show, launched on Turner's CNN in 1985, ran for 25 years?

Larry King. Larry King Live became CNN's most-watched show, and in 1992 the billionaire Ross Perot used it to announce that he would run for president if volunteers put his name on the ballot in all fifty states.

Whom did Turner buy MGM/UA from in 1986 for $1.5bn?

Kirk Kerkorian. The purchase buried Turner in debt, and within months he sold the studio straight back to Kerkorian, keeping only what he had wanted all along: MGM's library of classic films.

Which practice by Turner with classic movies helped prompt the creation of the National Film Registry?

Adding colour to them. Turner had black-and-white favourites such as Casablanca tinted by computer for television, and the storm of protest from directors and critics led to a national list of films to be kept as they were made.

Turner bought a Southern wrestling promotion in 1988 and relaunched it as which rival to the WWF?

World Championship Wrestling. Turner had shown wrestling on his Atlanta station since the early 1970s; WCW went on to fight the WWF for viewers in the 'Monday Night War', then was sold to its rival in 2001.

With which film did Turner launch TNT in 1988?

Gone with the Wind. It was Turner's favourite film: he named one son Rhett after its hero, and only his wife's veto stopped him from calling a daughter Scarlett.

Which animation studio did Turner buy in 1991, forming the core of Cartoon Network?

Hanna-Barbera. The studio's back catalogue, added to the old MGM cartoons and Looney Tunes Turner already owned, gave him enough material to fill a network with nothing but cartoons, which went on air the next year.

Which environmental superhero cartoon did Turner create in 1990?

Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Turner devised the show with producer Barbara Pyle and filled it with famous voices: Whoopi Goldberg spoke for the spirit of the Earth, and Hollywood stars played the polluting villains.

What international sporting event did Turner found in 1986 to ease Cold War tensions?

The Goodwill Games. After America boycotted the Moscow Olympics and the Soviets stayed away from Los Angeles, Turner staged his own games in Moscow so that the two sides' athletes could meet, and lost millions doing it.

Turner Field, the Braves' former home, was originally built as what?

An Olympic stadium. It was drawn up with baseball in mind from the start: once the 1996 Olympics were over, the stands at the north end came down and the rest became the Braves' ballpark.

With which media giant did Turner merge his broadcasting company in 1996, becoming its vice chairman?

Time Warner. The $7.5 billion deal ended Turner's days as his own boss: he kept charge of the cable networks at first, but within five years he had been moved aside from the channels he had founded.

Turner lost billions when his shares collapsed after a 2001 merger with which internet company?

AOL. Turner had been the merged group's biggest individual shareholder; as the dot-com bubble burst he sold half his stock at a huge loss and gave up his seat as vice chairman.

How did Turner's long feud with Rupert Murdoch begin in 1983?

A collision in the Sydney to Hobart race. A Murdoch-sponsored yacht hit Turner's six miles from the finish; back on shore a well-oiled Turner dared him to a fistfight, to be televised from Las Vegas.

What did Turner say his newly merged company would do to his rival Rupert Murdoch?

Squash him like a bug. Turner went on to compare Murdoch to Hitler, and Murdoch's New York Post answered with the front-page headline 'Is Ted Turner Nuts? You Decide'.

Aboard which yacht did Turner win the 1977 America's Cup with a four-race sweep over Australia?

Courageous. The boat had beaten Turner in the 1974 trials; given her helm in 1977, he steered her to a 4-0 win, then slid under the table, rum bottle in hand, at the winner's press conference.

In 1979 Turner won which ocean race in a storm that killed 15 competitors?

Fastnet Race. A force-ten storm caught the fleet between England and a lonely rock off Ireland; Turner's Tenacious sailed on through it and was declared the winner on corrected time.

Which actress was Turner married to from 1991 to 2001?

Jane Fonda. They married on her 54th birthday, the bride in a gown she had kept from her 1981 film Rollover; it was her third marriage and his third as well.

To which organisation did Turner pledge $1 billion in 1997?

United Nations. The pledge came to about a third of his fortune, and he used it to dare his fellow billionaires to start giving their own money away.

With which former Georgia senator did Turner found the Nuclear Threat Initiative?

Sam Nunn. Turner pledged up to $250 million, and Nunn, who had spent his last Senate years getting old Soviet warheads dismantled, ran the group as its chief executive.

Which nickname did Turner's habit of saying whatever came into his head earn him?

The Mouth of the South. He kept earning it, once dismissing opponents of abortion as 'bozos'; the press also knew him as 'Captain Outrageous'.

Which animal did Turner raise by the tens of thousands on his western ranches?

Bison. Turner began with just three animals, kept in a makeshift pasture beside a cypress swamp, and went on to build a herd tens of thousands strong on ranches across the American West.

Which fellow cable billionaire overtook Turner in 2011 as America's largest private landowner?

John C. Malone. In the 1980s he had led the cable operators who bailed out Turner's debt-laden company; a generation later he passed his old ally's two million acres with vast holdings of his own.

Which Communist leader, an early fan of CNN, took Turner duck shooting in 1982?

Fidel Castro. He had been watching CNN's signal in Havana and invited its owner to Cuba; Turner talked him into taping a promotional spot, and came home fired up by Castro's advice to take the news worldwide.

After which western state did Turner name the chain of grill restaurants he co-founded?

Montana. Ted's Montana Grill is named for the state of his Flying D ranch; co-founder George McKerrow had waiters tell diners there was a one-in-four chance the meat on their plate was raised by Turner.

Which NHL expansion team did Turner's company launch in 1999?

Atlanta Thrashers. Fans named the team after Georgia's state bird, the brown thrasher; like the Flames a generation earlier, it was eventually sold to Canadian owners, and it became the Winnipeg Jets in 2011.

Which novel won the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship, his $500,000 prize for fiction that tackled global problems?

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. Judges including Ray Bradbury and William Styron chose the tale of a telepathic gorilla from 2,500 manuscripts, then fell out with the organisers over handing a single book so much money.

What is the title of Turner's 2008 memoir?

Call Me Ted. Written with Bill Burke, the book keeps stopping to let friends, relatives and old colleagues break in with 'Ted Stories' of their own, so the reader hears his life from both sides.

What were Turner and his wife criticised for at the 1991 World Series?

Joining the tomahawk chop. TV cameras caught the couple making the Braves crowd's gesture, which Native American groups were protesting; she promised to give it up, while Turner said he had not foreseen the reaction.

Which neurodegenerative condition did Turner reveal he had been diagnosed with in 2018?

Lewy body dementia. Describing it on television as a milder cousin of Alzheimer's, he lost the thread mid-sentence and told the interviewer: 'I can't remember what my disease is.'

Atlanta was Turner's base, but Avalon Plantation, where he died in 2026, lies across the border in which state?

Florida. Avalon was his hunting plantation near Tallahassee; when he held his third wedding there in 1991, the founder of CNN did his best to keep the press out.

In 2010 Turner signed the Giving Pledge, launched that year by Bill and Melinda Gates and which investor?

Warren Buffett. Signers promise at least half their wealth to charity; Turner wrote in his pledge letter that if he lived his life again, the one thing he would not change was his giving.

What kind of school was McCallie, where Turner boarded from age eleven?

Military school. He hated it at first and, his mother said, wore out his shoes walking punishment tours; by the time he left he had come to like the military life.

Turner's 1977 purchase of the Hawks is credited with stopping the team doing what?

Leaving Atlanta. Turner likened taking on the Hawks to taking over the Confederate Army at Appomattox; three years later they were division champions.

Turner's Braves finally won the World Series in 1995 by beating which team?

Cleveland Indians. The Braves floundered for a decade while Turner ran them himself; once he left the baseball to professionals they reached the World Series in 1991 and won it four years later.