Photos: Ted Turner through the years

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Ted Turner, CNN founder, business maverick and ‘Mouth of the South,’ dies at 87 He took a billboard business and turned it into a media empire, creating 24-hour cable news. He also owned the Atlanta Braves and championed environmental causes.

Ted Turner, the media mogul, philanthropist, international sports impresario, rancher and champion sailor, had one of the best runs in human history. And he would have been the first to tell you so. These images tell the story of the outrageous life of Atlanta's own "Captain Outrageous." Here, Turner is all smiles at the announcement on Jan. 6, 1976, that he has puchased the Atlanta Braves. (Charles E. Kelly / AP file)

Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III was born in Ohio in 1938 to a strict businessman father, who moved the family to Georgia to begin the Turner Advertising billboard company. After being kicked out of Brown University, Ted joined his father's firm in 1960, and took the company over after his father's suicide in 1963. Ted is seen here in 1967. (Joe McTyre / AJC Archive at GSU Library AJCNS1967-04-12a)

Turner, seen here in his office in 1966, turned his father's troubled adversiting business around, and began purchasing radio stations. By 1970, Turner had traded the radio stations for a single television station in Atlanta — WJRJ Channel 17 — and changed its name to WTCG, for Turner Communications Group. Turner filled his station's programming with old movies, sitcoms, cartoons, and beginning in 1972, Atlanta Braves and Hawks games. (Floyd Edwin Jillson / AJC Archive at GSU Library AJCN151-075b)

In 1976, Turner — seen here that year with WTCG chief engineer Gene Wright — began transmitting the station over satellite to cable providers across the country, and rebranded WTCG "The Super-Station." It was an expensive gamble that paid off, and began what would become the Turner Broadcasting System empire. (Bud Skinner / AJC file)

Turner made more big moves in 1976, purchasing the Atlanta Braves from the Atlanta-LaSalle Corporation. (He's seen here with Braves chairman Bill Bartholomay at the announcement of the sale.) At the time, Turner said that anyone who gets into pro sports to make money is crazy. (Charles E. Kelly / AP file)

Turner was a huge — and sometimes bizarre — presence at Braves games. Here he is celebrating on opening night, April 13, 1976. It was the club's first game with Turner as its new owner. (Bud Skinner / AJC Archive at GSU Library AJCNS1976-04-13e)

Ted Turner wore an Indian headdress on the baseball field before the Braves game on April 14, 1976. (AP file)

In this undated photo, Turner helps out a base sweeper during the 5th inning, along with the Braves monster mascot. (Bud Skinner / AJC file)

During a game on Sept. 5, 1978, the San Diego Padres mascot, The KGB Chicken, showed Turner who had the bigger mouth. (Jerome McClendon / AJC file)

In one of the Braves' most legendary stunts, promotions director Bob Hope convinced Turner to don a jockey's uniform and race in a chariot pulled by an ostrich, before a game in 1976. (AP file)

Cable broadcasting and Braves stunts weren't the only things occupying Ted Turner in 1976. That year, he established Turner Enterprises, Inc (TEI), the company that handles his land holdings. In time, Turner would become the largest landowner in the country, by acreage. In 1977, Turner would also purchase the Atlanta Hawks and would begin planning a 24-hour news channel. (Charles E. Knoblock / AP file)

In 1977, Turner was involved in two feuds with Commissioner of Baseball Bowie Kuhn. First, Kuhn suspended Turner for a year for pursuing another team's player. Turner appealed that action and won. Another time, with the Braves in a slump, Turner took over as team manager. That arrangement lasted for one game, on May 11, before the league ordered him to stop. Turner appealed that decision too, but lost. (AP file)

Turner had better luck in the water. In September 1977, he won the America's Cup when he skippered the yacht Courageous in a four-race sweep over an Australian team. (NBC Sports)

Ted Turner is greeted by the press at Hartsfield Airport on Sept. 19, 1977, one day after he won the America's Cup. (Calvin Cruce / AJC Archive at GSU Library AJCNS1977-09-19-01c)

In 1978, Turner announced to the National Cable Television Association that he was planning a 24-hour global news channel that would include ten domestic bureaus. That same year, Turner changed the name of WTCG to WTBS. (Calvin Cruce / AJC file)

Ted Turner presided over the opening ceremonies on June 1, 1980, for the Cable News Network (CNN), the 24-hour global news channel that he conceived with media executive Reese Schonfeld. (Joe Benton / AJC file)

The founding of CNN was met with general skepticism and the first several years would be costly for Turner (seen here in 1982 behind his desk at the CNN headquarters on Techwood Drive). In time, the channel would turn a profit and establish itself as an essential news-media player. In 1982, the channel spun off CNN2, later called Headline News (HLN). (Nancy Mangiafico / AJC Archive at GSU Library AJCP532-163a)

The old Turner Broadcasting System headquarters building at 1050 Techwood Drive near Georgia Tech was home to WTBS and CNN, as seen here in 1983. (Dwight Ross Jr. / AJC file)

1982 would be a big year for the Atlanta Hawks, as the team signed Dominique Wilkins, the all-time leading scorer at the University of Georgia. Here, team owner Ted Turner and coach Kevin Loughery flank Wilkins as he shows off his new team jersey. (Joe Holloway / AP file)

In 1985, Ted Turner announced that TBS would partner with Soviet sports officials to create The Goodwill Games, an international sporting event that would attempt to thaw Cold War relations. The United States and the Soviet Union had each boycotted the previous two Summer Olympics — the U.S. from the Moscow Games of 1980 and the Soviet Union from the Los Angeles Games of 1984. (Marty Lederhandler / AP file)

Turner, seen here in the CNN studios in 1985, continued to build his cable-broadcasting empire through the 1980s. His bid to buy the CBS network fell through, but soon afterwards he purchased the MGM/UA studio in 1986. However, that deal cost him too much, and Turner ended up owning only the studio's pre-1986 film and television library. Controversially, he colorized black-and-white classics like "Casablanca," to much ridicule. (AP file)

Ted Turner, seen here in his office in 1988, had more expansion in mind for that year. He purchased a wrestling production and rebranded it World Championship Wresting (WCW). The league's matches would be shown on TBS. That year, he also created Turner Network Television (TNT), in order to show the classic films from the MGM library that he had purchased. (Joey Ivansco / AJC Archive at GSU Library AJCP532-161a)

In 1990, Turner established the Turner Foundation, a philanthropic organization that distributes grants for conservation causes. One of the foundation's projects was the creation of Captain Planet, an environmental superhero that became a television-cartoon staple of the 1990s. Turner also became a serious rancher, developing the nation's largest herd of bison. He's seen here with some of those bison at his Flying D Ranch near Bozeman, Montana, in 1991. (Linda Best / Bozeman Daily Chronicle)

Ted Turner married actress Jane Fonda in late 1991 at a ranch in North Florida. It was the third marriage for both of them, and lasted until 2001. (TBS)

Turner and Fonda were common fixtures at Braves title runs during the team's glory years in the 1990s. Here, they're joined by President Jimmy Carter in 1991. (AJC file)

Ted Turner continued to expand, creating the Cartoon Network in 1992 ... (TBS)

... and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in 1994. (TBS)

Ted Turner joined Time Warner Chairman and CEO Gerald Levin on Sept. 22, 1995, to announce that Turner Broadcasting System would merge with Time Warner. Turner became vice-chairman and head of the company's cable networks division, but as he would later learn, wouldn't always get his way. (Richard Drew / AP file)

On Oct. 28, 1995, Turner celebrated the Atlanta Braves winning the World Series by parading the trophy around the infield at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. A few days later, he would stand atop a fire truck and lead a parade down Peachtree Street with his team. (Frank Niemeir / AJC file)

On opening day, March 29, 1997, the Braves played for the first time at Turner Field, a retooling of the former Centennial Olympics Stadium. The Braves would play at "The Ted" until 2016, when the team moved to Truist Park in Cobb County. (David Tulis / AJC file)

Ted Turner announced on Sept. 18, 1997, his plan to donate $1 billion to the United Nations through the creation of the United Nations Foundation. The money would be distributed over ten years, for programs to help refugees, fight diseases and clear land mines. (David Karp / AP file)

Ted Turner joined America Online's chairman and CEO, Steve Case, and Time Warner chairman and CEO, Gerald Levin, in January 2000 to announce the merger of AOL and Time Warner. The deal, which went into effect one year later, was a disaster that, along with the dot-com bubble burst, erased billions of dollars in value and a large part of Turner's personal fortune. In the years to come, Turner, although still vice chairman, would have less control over the broadcasting division of the company. (STuart Ramson / AP file)

In 2001, Ted Turner co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) with former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, shown here at left at the press announcement. The organization works to prevent accidents involving nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass distruction. (Michael DiBari Jr. / AP file)

In 2002, Ted Turner co-founded the Ted's Montana Grill chain with restauranteur George McKerrow Jr., with a menu that promotes bison burgers and other bison dishes. (AJC file)

In 2015, Atlanta renamed a stretch of Spring Street after Ted Turner. (Contributed)

The 2000s would be difficult years for Ted Turner, seen here in 2003. That year, he resigned as Time Warner vice chairman. Three years later, he resigned from the Time Warner board as well, in what was a slow and bitter falling-out with the company. In 2007, Time Warner would sell the Atlanta Braves to Liberty Media. (Rick McKay / AJC file)

In 2018, Ted Turner announced that he was suffering from Lewy body dementia. In November, friends and family — including ex-wife Jane Fonda — celebrated his 80th birthday at the St. Regis Atlanta hotel. That same year, AT&T purchased Time Warner and placed Turner Broadcasting under WarnerMedia. (Branden Camp / Special)

Turner's name will be permanently associated with the Techwood campus, but his former media empire continues to be rebranded and scattered. In 2022, AT&T spun off WarnerMedia, including some former Turner brands, and combined them with Discovery to create Warner Bros. Discovery. One of the first acts of the new company was to kill a new CNN streaming service called CNN+, which had launched only weeks before. (Elijah Nouvelage / Special to the AJC)

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Ted Turner, the media mogul, philanthropist, international sports impresario, rancher and champion sailor, had one of the best runs in human history. And he would have been the first to tell you so. These images tell the story of the outrageous life of Atlanta's own "Captain Outrageous." Here, Turner is all smiles at the announcement on Jan. 6, 1976, that he has puchased the Atlanta Braves. (Charles E. Kelly / AP file)

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