R. I. P. Ted Turner, 1938-2026

There's just something about a man with a cigar . . . 

Ted Turner, the colorful billionaire and philanthropist, 6 feet tall with a rakish mustache and a Rhett Butler swagger, has died at the age of 87 at his plantation home in northern Florida.  A talkative, ambitious entrepreneur who dreamed big and accomplished much, he was called "The Mouth of the South" for his sometimes outrageous comments to journalists. Among many other accomplishments, he was the father of CNN and Turner Classic Movies, and for some years was the owner of the Atlanta Braves baseball team.  He wasn't born in the South, but we're proud to claim him anyway.

I remember when he started his first TV station in Atlanta, where I was attending prep school at the time - channel 17 was a low-budget start-up that I chiefly remember because it would play Top 40 songs all morinng? / afternoon? on Saturday - producing the first music videos, all done in-house by using special effects with the TV cameras - like mirror images, upside-down dancers, a rain of polka dots, and so forth.  Primitive, but fascinating at the time.  I watched them on my nifty little Sony 5-inch screen, which was the last word in cool at the time.

He was married three times and had five children.  His third wife was Jane Fonda from 1991 to 2001.

He was a handsome dog, but straight as a board, and therefore rather dull, like most straight guys.  Not someone I kept track of; hadn't thought about him in years.  But looking over his obituaries, I am struck by all the many good things he did or tried to do for the country and the world.  He actually cared about other people - what a concept.  Had had a big heart.

If you can spare the time to look at some of these retrospectives, you will see that, unlike some other big-mouthed billionaires, he actively promoted world peace, nuclear disarmament, environmental regulation, wildlife protection, responsible journalism, planned parenthood, women's rights, and many other noble causes.  He put his money where his big mouth was, too - lots of it.

So I have to say, Good on you, Ted.  You used your time on earth wisely and well, and your treasure too.  Rest in peace.

TCM: 

PBS: 

WSB (Atlanta, 1988): 

 

And a 52-minute interview with Charlie Rose from 2004 - it's most interesting to hear Turner's condemnation of Bush's invasion of Iraq, and contrast that with the insane, homicidal ravings of the current occupant of the White House:

P. S. -- Turner was no dummy, either.  He wanted to major in classics (Latin/Greek literature and history) in college, until his daddy threw a fit and made him choose something else.  In one of the videos above, Turner quotes from memory a famous passage from "Horatio at the Bridge" by Macaulay:

To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late;

And how can man die better than facing fearful odds,

For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods . . . .

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