The Man Who Changed Television and Transformed a Disney Ride Has Died at 87

Ted Turner, the brash, larger-than-life media entrepreneur who built a broadcasting empire from a struggling billboard company and changed television forever, died Wednesday at his home near Tallahassee, Florida. He was 87.

Turner had been living with Lewy body dementia since disclosing his diagnosis in 2018. His family confirmed he passed away peacefully. To most people, Turner’s name means CNN, which he launched in 1980 as the world’s first round-the-clock cable news network. It was a gamble that transformed journalism. Before CNN, news had a schedule. After CNN, it didn’t.

Ted Turner, the billionaire media entrepreneur and philanthropist who launched the 24-hour cable TV news revolution when he founded CNN in 1980, has died. He was 87. https://t.co/CboJPpPBiC pic.twitter.com/DOKk9QM120

— CNN (@CNN) May 6, 2026

But Turner’s ambitions ran in every direction. He converted a small Atlanta UHF station into TBS, one of the first cable superstations beamed by satellite into homes across the country. Then launched TNT in 1988. Earlier, he bought the Atlanta Braves in 1976, watched them win the World Series in 1995, and famously promised to end what he called the city’s “Loserville” reputation. Surprisingly, he raced yachts and won the America’s Cup in 1977. He pledged a billion dollars to the United Nations in 1997. Turner also signed the Giving Pledge. He bought wrestling promotions. Ted acquired professional basketball and hockey franchises. He protected millions of acres of land as a conservationist.

The man simply didn’t stop.

Disney Parks Connection

For a quieter corner of Turner’s legacy, look no further than a beloved theme park attraction that closed its doors in 2017.

Turner Classic Movies, the cable network Turner launched in 1994 as a home for classic Hollywood cinema, entered into a sponsorship partnership with Walt Disney World in May 2015. The result was The Great Movie Ride Presented by TCM, a refreshed version of the Hollywood Studios attraction that had been taking guests on a tour through cinema history since the park opened in 1989.

The TCM makeover was more than a logo swap. Digital movie posters replaced the old static displays. New branding appeared across the attraction’s marquee and exterior. A handprint photo opportunity was added. Most importantly, longtime TCM host Robert Osborne, one of the most knowledgeable and warmly regarded voices in classic film, recorded a brand-new pre-show and closing montage that anchored the entire experience.

For guests who rode during those two years, Osborne’s presence gave The Great Movie Ride a weight and sincerity that felt earned. TCM’s whole identity was built around treating old films with the same reverence you’d give any serious art form. Having that ethos inside a Disney attraction was a genuine pairing of missions.

The partnership lasted through 2017. The Great Movie Ride closed that same year, replaced by Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. But the TCM chapter remains one of the most fondly remembered stretches in the attraction’s 28-year history.

What He Leaves Behind

Turner is survived by five children, 14 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. His legacy is enormous and genuinely complicated, a man of enormous vision, enormous contradictions, and enormous impact. He reshaped news. Continued to preserve film history. And he challenged professional sports dynasties and built a few of his own.

For Disney fans of a certain era, his passing is also a quiet farewell to Robert Osborne’s voice echoing through a darkened Hollywood Studios theater, asking audiences to remember why movies matter.

That, too, was Ted Turner’s work.