Ted Turner - Biography

Last Editor: snookie2tink				Ted Turner Biography -   Name : Ted Turner Profession : American media mogul and philanthropist Birth Details : born November 19, 1938 Birth name : Robert Edward Turner III Nickname : Captain Outrageous (during his America's Cup days) Personal quotes : "Men should be disqualified for public office. Women should run the planet. They're better than us." "If I only had a little humility I Salary : Gods and Generals (2003) $636 Spouse : Jane Fonda (21 December 1991 - 22 May 2001) (divorced) Jane Shirley Smith (June 1964 - 1988) (divorced) 3 children Judy Nye (1960 - 1964) (divorced Trade mark : Licensing classic black-and-white movies to colorize them (the process is sometimes referred to as "Turnerizing", frequently in a derogatory c

Ted Turner Trivia -

Born at 8:50am-EST Founder/owner of CNN, WTBS, TNT, and other media properties. Announced plans to donate $1 billion to the United Nations over a 10-year period. [18 September 1997] Managed the Atlanta Braves for one game in 1977 (he lost). Attended Brown University, but left before graduation. His father committed suicide in 1959. Former son-in-law of Henry Fonda; former brother-in-law of Peter Fonda. Founded WTBS "Superstation" cable network in Atlanta, Georgia, USA in 1970. Was the skipper of "Courageous," the boat that won the America's Cup in 1977, the most prestigious event in yachting. Is the largest private landowner in the United States with about 1.75 million acres in New Mexico, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. His ranch empire, based in Montana, raises bison. Was the creator of World Championship Wrestling, which began competing with Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation on Monday nights. Former owner of the MLB's Atlanta Braves, NHL's Atlanta Thrashers & NBA's Atlanta Hawks. They are now owned by Time Warner. With the merger of his company with Time-Warner, and that company's merger with America On-Line, he has become vice-president of AOL Time-Warner, the largest multi-media conglomerate in the world. Created the children's cartoon show "Captain Planet" as a way to educate kids about the negative effects of pollution. Turner was angered for so long about the effect the population had on the Earth, so he created the TV show hoping to let the next generation be more aware of the problems that people cause. His cable television networks include Superstation WTBS, various international versions of Cable News Network (CNN), CNN Headline News, CNN Financial, Turner Network Television (TNT), Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Cartoon Network. On 29 January 2003, he announced he would resign from his position as Vice-President of AOL Time Warner. In November of 2001, Turner told cable television executives that he felt sidelined by AOL Time Warner when he was replaced earlier that year as head of Turner Broadcasting Systems. Once stated on 'Larry King Live' that he regretted fathering more than one child, due to his belief that the world is overpopulated. Former uncle of Bridget Fonda and Justin Fonda. Received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College in 2001. Served as best man at 'Larry King' and Shawn Southwick's wedding Built his Turner Network from one modest Atlanta television station once known as WTCG Channel 17, and now known as the Super Station. From this one small station, which specialized in reruns of TV series, old movies from the "Golden Age of Hollywood", and original programming, he expanded into CNN and eventually created the television channels Turner Network Television, Turner Classic Movies and Turner South. In March 2001, sold World Championship Wrestling to his competition the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment). WWF used the brand in their programming for less than a year before retiring it.

Ted Turner Detailed Biography -

Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American media mogul and philanthropist. He is best known for founding TBS and CNN, his (failed) marriage to Jane Fonda, and his $1 billion pledge to the United Nations (see United Nations Foundation). Turner's penchant for making controversial statements (often classified in the foot-in-mouth category) has earned him the nickname "The Mouth of the South." Ted Turner has acknowledged that he has Bipolar disorder. Turner's media empire began with his father's billboard business which he took over at the age of 24 after his father's suicide. Purchase of an Atlanta UHF station in 1970 began the assemblage of the Turner Broadcasting System. His Cable News Network revolutionized news media, coming to the fore covering the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Turner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia. He attended the McCallie School, an unaffiliated Christian prep school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Colorful episodes from his life include being expelled from Brown University for having a female visitor in his room in 1960. At university, Turner was an unspectacular student in class, though he was vice-president of the Brown Debating Union. Ted Turner began sailing when he was nine years old. He entered competition when he was eleven in the junior program at the Savannah Yacht Club, and went on to compete in the Olympic trials in 1964. In the 1970s, Turner's sailboat racing ventures included the America's Cup. In 1977, he skippered the winning yacht, Courageous, and got a lot of publicity for showing up at the post race press conference drunk. He purchased the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks in 1976 and created the Goodwill Games in 1986. His relationship with the Braves was somewhat peculiar before the team's success in the 1990s; Turner was one of the more hands-on owners in baseball history, at one point going as far as to give the team's regular manager the day off so Turner could manage. About this experience, he famously said, "Managing isn't that difficult, you just have to score more runs than the other guy". After a failed attempt to acquire CBS, Ted Turner purchased the legendary but struggling Hollywood Film Studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) from Kirk Kerkorian in 1986 for $1.5 Billion. Following the acquisition, Ted Turner assumed an enormous debt and had no other choice but to sell parts of the acquisition. United Artists and the MGM "Leo the Lion" Trademark logo were sold back to Kirk Kerkorian. The MGM Studio lot in Culver City was sold to Lorimar/Telepictures. Turner kept MGM's pre-1986 and pre-merger film and TV library, which included nearly all of MGM's material made before the merger, and a small portion of United Artists's film and TV properties (which included very few UA pictures, the TV series Gilligan's Island, the RKO Radio Pictures library, and the pre-1948 Warner Bros. library that was once the property of Associated Artists Productions, UA Television's predecessor company). Turner Entertainment Co. was established in August 1986 to oversee the entire film properties owned by Ted Turner. Through Turner Enterprises, he owns 14 ranches in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Dakota. 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." In 1988, Turner purchased World Championship Wrestling (in 2001, under AOL Time Warner control, it was sold to the competing World Wrestling Federation). In 1989, Ted Turner created the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship to be awarded to a work of fiction offering positive solutions to global problems. The winner, chosen from 2500 entries worldwide, was Daniel Quinn's Ishmael. He founded the Turner Foundation in 1990. In 1990 Turner created the character Captain Planet, an enviromental superhero. Turner produced two TV series with him as the featured character. On September 22, 1995, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. announced plans to merge with Time Warner Inc. This merger completed on October 10, 1996, with Turner as vice chairman, head of Time Warner's cable networks division. On January 10, 2000, Time Warner announced plans to merge with AOL as AOL Time Warner. This merger closed January 11, 2001. On January 29, 2003, AOL Time Warner announced that Ted Turner would resign as a vice chairman. On February 24, 2006, Turner annouced that he would not seek re-election as director on the AOL Time Warner board of directors. He is America's largest private landowner, owning approximately two million acres (8,000 km²). 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 made from fresh ground bison meat. In addition, Ted Turner is the founder of Cartoon Network. Under his ownership, World Championship Wrestling became the only federation in history to outrate and outsell the McMahon family and their World Wrestling Federation. After the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, Turner founded the Goodwill Games as a statement for peace through sport. In 1998, Turner gave $1 billion in Time Warner stock to the United Nations.