CNN founder Ted Turner dies after revealing he had degenerative nerve disease

Ted Turner, the brash sportsman and entrepreneur whose ambition and instincts led to a media empire that included groundbreaking news network CNN, has died, CNN reported on Wednesday citing a press release from Turner Enterprises. He was 87.

No cause of death was given.

In September 2018 Turner revealed that he had Lewy body dementia, a degenerative nerve disease.

US President Donald Trump paid homage to Ted Turner, calling him his friend who was there whenever "I needed him."

The Republican also did not miss the opportunity to take a dig at CNN in his statement posted on Truth Social. 

Trump said, "He founded CNN, sold it, and was personally devastated by the Deal because the new ownership took CNN, his "baby," and destroyed it. It became woke, and everything that he is not all about. "

One nickname was not enough for a personality as roguish and bold as Turner's. He was known variously as the "Mouth of the South," "Captain Outrageous," and "Terrible Ted."

He became a ​billionaire by taking over his father's billboard business, buying a television station in 1970 and parlaying that into what would become a vast ground-breaking television group.

Turner became one of the most powerful figures in U.S. media and entertainment, his networks ‌specializing in news, sports, re-runs, and old movies. 

But he did not stop there. He added the MGM/UA movie studio to his portfolio before making an even bigger move - merging his Turner Broadcasting System with Time Warner in 1996.

Turner headed the new company's cable networks division and was its leading shareholder, but he had trouble fitting into a corporate system after decades of free-wheeling as his own boss. He eventually lost control of his networks.

Turner also became one of the world's leading environmentalists, one of the largest land owners in the United States, and a major philanthropist, giving $1 billion to the United Nations.

With a slender mustache, gap-toothed grin, dimpled chin and ​mischievous glint in his eye, Turner pursued a range of passions. 

In the 1970s he owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association and skippered his yacht the Courageous to the America's Cup. The many women ​in his life included Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda.

In 1986 he started the Goodwill Games, an Olympic-like competition, and two years later bought a wrestling organization that provided more TV content. His concerns about nuclear war ⁠led him to co-found the Nuclear Threat Initiative in 2001.

Forbes estimates Turner's fortune at $2.8 billion.

"If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect," he once said.—Reuters/ The News Digital