Toller Cranston

Toller Shalitoe Montague Cranston (April 20, 1949 – January 24, 2015) was a Canadian figure skater and painter. He won the 1971–1976 Canadian national championships, the 1974 World bronze medal and the 1976 Olympic bronze medal. Despite never winning at the World Figure Skating Championships due to his poor compulsory figures, he won the small medal for free skating at the 1972 and 1974 championships. Cranston is credited by many with having brought a new level of artistry to men's figure skating.

Personal life

Cranston was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1949 and grew up in Kirkland Lake. When he was 11, his family moved to suburban Montreal. Growing up, Cranston had an uneasy relationship with his family, especially his mother, who was a painter and who he says had a domineering and self-centred personality. He later compared his childhood to "being in jail"; in school he had the habit of asking provocative questions that made his teachers think he was being disruptive. After high school, Cranston attended the École des beaux-arts de Montréal. By his third year, he became restless with his studies. One of his teachers suggested that there was nothing more he could learn at the school, so Cranston set out at that point to establish himself as a professional artist.

In 1976, he teamed up with personal manager Elva Oglanby to write his first book, ''Toller'', a mixture of autobiography, sketches, poems, paintings, humour and tongue-in-cheek observations. It reached number two in the Canadian non-fiction charts. Cranston co-wrote the autobiographical ''Zero '' (1997) with Martha Lowder Kimball, and a second volume, ''When Hell Freezes Over: Should I Bring My Skates?'' (2000), also with Kimball. Though he described a sexual tryst between himself and Ondrej Nepela in the second book as well as affairs with women, in his books he presents himself as having lived without forming strong romantic or emotional attachments.

Artistic career

Toller Cranston (April 20, 1949 – January 24, 2015) was not only a celebrated Canadian figure skater but also an accomplished and prolific visual artist. Though internationally recognized for revolutionizing figure skating with his theatrical flair and expressive style, Cranston maintained that painting was his true vocation. Over the course of four decades, he developed a distinct and instantly recognizable visual language that gained him a respected place in the Canadian and international art scenes.

Early Artistic Development

Cranston's interest in art began in early childhood. He received formal training at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and later at the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD University) in Toronto. His early influences included the Surrealists, the Symbolists, and various figures from the Art Nouveau and Expressionist movements. Even while training intensively in figure skating, Cranston continued to draw and paint obsessively, often using his earnings from skating tours to fund his artistic pursuits.

Artistic Style and Medium

Cranston’s art is noted for its flamboyant, dreamlike imagery, rich colour palettes, and dense, layered compositions. His work often features allegorical figures, masks, acrobats, mythological creatures, and self-representations, invoking themes of performance, identity, and the human psyche. His technique was primarily acrylic on canvas, though he also worked in oil, pastel, watercolor, and mixed media. He frequently integrated gold leaf and ornamental motifs, blending elements of Baroque extravagance with a distinctly modern sensibility.

Art critics and scholars have described Cranston’s work as a form of psychological narrative painting, where fantasy and autobiography merge. He eschewed minimalism and embraced theatricality in both form and subject. His paintings are often described as “visual operas,” rich in symbolism and deeply rooted in personal mythology.

Exhibitions and Recognition

Throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Cranston exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally. His early solo shows in Toronto and Montreal were followed by major exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Mexico City. His works were shown in commercial galleries as well as institutions, and several Canadian museums acquired his pieces for their permanent collections.

In 1996, the Art Gallery of Hamilton held a retrospective titled ''Toller Cranston: Painted Worlds'', showcasing a broad range of his work and solidifying his status as a serious visual artist independent of his skating fame. His paintings have also been featured in art fairs and private collections across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Artistic Life in Mexico

In 1994, Cranston relocated to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its vibrant artistic community. There, he restored a sprawling colonial estate that became both his home and an immersive art environment filled with murals, mosaics, gardens, and hundreds of paintings. The property itself functioned as a living gallery, often visited by collectors, journalists, and admirers from around the world.

Living in Mexico afforded Cranston both seclusion and inspiration. He described the country as "an explosion of color and culture," elements that continued to permeate his art. His later work displayed a maturation of style — still fantastical but with greater spiritual depth and symbolic richness.

Legacy in the Visual Arts

Toller Cranston left behind a vast body of work, estimated to include over 10,000 pieces — ranging from sketches and illustrations to large-scale canvases. At the time of his death in 2015, he was actively painting and preparing for future exhibitions. His estate has since worked to preserve and catalogue his art, promote scholarly research, and maintain his legacy as a multidisciplinary creative force.

While his innovations in figure skating are widely celebrated, Cranston himself stated, “Skating was my profession. Art was my obsession.” His contributions to Canadian visual culture remain significant, representing a rare synthesis of sport, theatre, and art into a singular vision of creative expression.

Authorized Representation

Donna Child Fine Art Gallery, based in Toronto, Canada, is the officially authorized dealer and appraiser for the artworks of Toller Cranston, in partnership with Toller International. As a recognized representative of Cranston’s artistic estate, the gallery plays a pivotal role in the preservation, authentication, and placement of his visual works within public and private collections across Canada and internationally.

Appointed by Toller International, Donna Child Fine Art is responsible for cataloguing, appraising, and managing the sale of Cranston’s extensive body of work. This includes paintings, works on paper, and limited editions. The gallery also provides curatorial support and professional consultation for exhibitions, publications, and institutional acquisitions involving Cranston’s art.

In its role as steward of Cranston’s artistic legacy, the gallery works closely with the estate to ensure historical accuracy, provenance documentation, and alignment with the broader mission to promote Toller Cranston’s cultural and artistic contributions. Through exhibitions, private showings, and educational outreach, Donna Child Fine Art helps advance public appreciation for Cranston’s legacy as one of Canada’s most distinctive multidisciplinary talents.

Skating career

Amateur career

After an initial failed experience with ballet lessons, Cranston started skating at the age of 7, when his parents bought him hockey skates. He experimented on his own with trying to dance on the ice, and was only later told that what he was doing was called "figure skating". His mother was reluctant to allow him to pursue the sport seriously, but at the age of 11, he met Eva Vasak, who was impressed by his talent and offered to coach him for free. Vasak coached him for the next eight years.

When Cranston was 13, he developed Osgood–Schlatter disease and was initially told that he would never skate again. After eight weeks in a cast, he resumed training, and won the 1964 Canadian Junior Championship the next month. In the next few years, however, Cranston met with little success at the senior level. As he was dividing his attention with art school at this time, his physical conditioning was poor and he struggled to make it through his programs, which at that time were 5 minutes for senior men.

After failing to make the Canadian team for the 1968 Winter Olympics, Cranston struggled with motivation and lack of training discipline. His career turned a corner in the following season when he began to work with coach Ellen Burka in Toronto. Ellen Burka required him to do complete run-throughs of his entire program and his results began to improve: third at the Canadian championships in 1969, and second in 1970.

Cranston often came in first in his free skating programs, but his low placements in compulsory figures limited his overall scores and placements.Kestnbaum, p. 115 As figure skating historian James R. Hines put it, Cranston was weak in compulsory figures, but his strength was the free skate. He was a clockwise spinner and jumper. He quickly gained a reputation as the most innovative and exciting artistic skater of his time, one of the first to emphasize use of the whole body to express the music as well as to execute skating moves in best form, to lie down while sliding down the ice and to wear elaborate costumes. He was particularly known for the quality and inventiveness of his spins, which were widely copied by other skaters. The quality of his precision landings and inventive choreography was topped by his combination jumps that included triple revolution jumps. Soon reports from competitions of this period began to mention younger skaters who had become "Tollerized" by attempting to copy Cranston's style, which was characterized by contrasting very stretched positions with a high free leg with more angular, bent-leg positions, and the incorporation of elements such as running toe steps and high kicks in step sequences. Many of his original spins included many changes of positions that seemed to defy gravity. His Russian split jump was "over split" which brought his skates up to shoulder height instead of waist height.

As figure skating writer and historian Ellyn Kestnbaum put it, Cranston brought his artist's eye to the sport, as well as "a flexible body" and elaborate costumes and gestures. He made popular moves held in "unexpected angles", including sideways toepick runs, the broken-leg sit spin, stag jumps, and his own variation on the back camel spin. He used choreography to create, with his arms and other body parts, specific shapes that demonstrated artistry. He also used his natural flexibility to "craft unusual extreme body shapes employing both curved and angular lines".Kestnbaum, p. 189 Kestnbaum states that Cranston's movements were counter to the classical movements of traditional figure skating movements and the movements of many of his contemporaries, including John Curry from Great Britain. Cranston's movements inspired male skaters of the time into the 1980s, especially in North America and the Soviet Union, even if they were not done with his flexibility and gracefulness. Hines stated that Cranston was "perhaps the most avant garde skater in the history of the sport, one who judges did not always understand or appreciate". Hines added that as a result, Cranston was not remembered for his competitive record "but rather for what he brought to the sport".

Even during his competitive career, Cranston had talked about his goal in skating being to create what he called "theatre on ice", or skating as a form of dance expression, rather than winning medals. He explained that the purpose of perfecting the technical aspects of the sport was to allow the body to express the music or emotion. Cranston called himself "the last true amateur", a reference to the state sponsorship that many of his European competitors enjoyed and the corporate sponsorship of skaters such as John Curry. As Hines put it, Cranston was "never a conventional skater but rather a bold modernist who employed angular body movements in a dramatic and highly interpretative style".

Cranston won his first national title in 1971 with a performance that included triple Salchow and loop jumps, and received a standing ovation from the audience. He also won the silver medal at the 1971 North American Championships, the last time the event was held. It was in the 1972 season that he truly established his reputation in the sport. At the 1972 Canadian championships, his marks included four 6.0s for artistic impression and six 5.9s for technical merit. At this time the artistic impression mark was supposed to be based on the quality of the jumps, landings and spins, and the choreography to the music. Cranston skated poor compulsory figures at the 1972 Winter Olympics, but turned in a strong program to finish fifth place in the free skating. At the 1972 World Figure Skating Championships, he won the free skating medal with another superb performance, again landing triple loop and Salchow jumps and receiving a thunderous standing ovation as well as a perfect 6.0 mark for artistic impression. He won the bronze medal at the 1974 World Figure Skating Championships, coming in first place in both the short program and in the free skate, but coming in eighth place in figures. Toller Cranston was the 1976 Olympic bronze medalist, coming in first place in the short program, second place in the free skate, and seventh place in compulsory figures.

Professional career

After the 1976 competitive season, Cranston began a long career in professional figure skating. Following up on his earlier-stated goal of developing "theatre on ice", Cranston performed and starred in the Broadway show, "The Ice Show", at New York's Palace Theatre. The show ran for six weeks and was extended for another four weeks. It also featured Gordon McKellen, Colleen O'Connor and James Millns, and several other former elite champion skaters including (during its run) Ken Shelly and Jo Jo Starbuck. The ice show was broadcast as a special on ABC's ''Wide World of Sports'' recorded in the arena in Montreal, Canada. He later toured in Europe with Holiday on Ice, and in 1983 appeared in a short-lived production at Radio City Music Hall in New York City with Peggy Fleming and Robin Cousins.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Cranston made a series of skating specials for CBC television. The best of these was "Strawberry Ice" (1982), a fantasy that also featured Peggy Fleming, Sandra and Val Bezic, Allen Schramm, and Sarah Kawahara, with imaginative costumes designed by Frances Dafoe. The production won a variety of awards, including an ACTRA Award and was redistributed in 67 countries. Cranston's other TV specials included "Dream Weaver" (1979) and "Magic Planet" (1983).

During this period, Cranston was a regular on the Canadian variety TV show '' Stars on Ice'', and appeared in the similar NBC series '' The Big Show'' in 1980.

His other television credits included a cameo appearance in an ice ballet production of "The Snow Queen" (1982), starring John Curry and Janet Lynn. In 1983, he portrayed the character of Tybalt in "Romeo and Juliet on Ice", a production starring Brian Pockar and Dorothy Hamill as the title characters. He appeared in Joni Mitchell's concert film " Shadows and Light". He made a non-skating acting appearance in the 1983 short film " I Am a Hotel", a music video featuring songs by Leonard Cohen. He is also on the back cover of Joni Mitchell's album "Hejira".

Throughout the 1980s, he was a regular competitor at the World Professional Figure Skating Championships and other made-for-TV pro skating events. In 1986, he was one of the cast members of the original IMG-produced American Stars on Ice tour (no relation to the earlier Canadian TV series of the same name), and appeared with the show for the next several years.

Cranston was also a commentator on CBC television for figure skating events. However, in 1991, the CBC fired him, citing concerns from the Canadian Figure Skating Association that his often brutally frank and opinionated commentary was denigrating to Canadian skaters. Cranston filed a lawsuit against the CBC that was eventually resolved in his favour.

In the summer of 1990, Cranston agreed to coach American skater Christopher Bowman, who moved into Cranston's home in Toronto. The influence of the notoriously unstable Bowman on Cranston's life was disastrous; Cranston later wrote, "... drug dealers buzzed the front doorbell morning, noon, and night. Prostitutes invaded my house from the street. Christopher sometimes announced that he was going out for a carton of milk and didn't return for three days." Having lost the ability to tolerate Bowman's behaviour any longer Cranston finally threw him out in the fall of 1991. Meanwhile, Cranston had become so depressed that he was unable to paint, and started taking drugs as well. At this time, he began to make changes in his lifestyle: He sold his Toronto house, which was cluttered with art he had collected over the years, and bought a house in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Cranston continued to perform in Canada with Stars on Ice and IMG's smaller-city tour, Skate the Nation, for the next few years. However, in the fall of 1994, he broke his leg while practicing for a holiday show in Vail, Colorado. Although he made a few skating appearances afterwards, in 1997, he decided to retire from professional skating before (as he described it) he became a parody of himself.

Results

Retirement

For retirement, Cranston took residence in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where his large and opulently decorated home and studio, as well as his painting became his main artistic forms of expression. Cranston's work often incorporated themes related to skating.

In 2010, Cranston returned to skating for a short time as a guest judge for Battle of the Blades, a figure skating reality competition show on CBC Television. In 2013, he was appointed as the Official Artist of Skate Canada and produced the signature poster for the 2013 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in London, Ontario.

Death

Cranston was found dead at his residence from an apparent heart attack on the morning of January 24, 2015, aged 65. Skate Canada paid tribute to him with a moment of silence at the Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Kingston, Ontario.

Cranston died with an outdated will, leaving his three siblings to fight over Cranston's estate. His sister, Phillippa Baran, was subsequently sued by her two surviving brothers, Goldie and Guy Cranston for, among other things, fraud. In 2021, the matter was settled, with the court finding that there had been no deliberate malfeasance on Baran's part.

Legacy

Toller International and Legacy

Toller International is a legacy initiative established to preserve, promote, and celebrate the life and multidisciplinary achievements of Toller Cranston (1949–2015), the Canadian figure skating icon, visual artist, and cultural visionary. Founded and directed by Cranston’s sister, Phillippa Cranston, the organization serves as a steward of his vast creative estate, which includes thousands of original paintings, drawings, journals, and archival materials, as well as media, awards, and personal memorabilia.

Toller International operates with the mission to honour Cranston’s singular contributions to both sport and the arts. Best known internationally for transforming figure skating into an expressive art form during the 1970s, Cranston was also a prolific painter who created over 10,000 works of art during his lifetime. Through exhibitions, publications, public talks, and educational initiatives, Toller International works to ensure his legacy remains active and accessible to future generations.

Following Cranston’s unexpected passing in 2015 at his home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a substantial effort was undertaken to repatriate his artwork and personal effects to Canada. Toller International has since led numerous projects to archive and curate these materials. It has collaborated with art galleries, museums, cultural institutions, and skating organizations to contextualize and celebrate Cranston’s interdisciplinary legacy.

In addition to preserving his artistic output, Toller International advocates for the values Cranston championed: individuality, courage, creativity, and self-expression. The organization’s vision includes promoting initiatives that inspire others to live authentically and pursue their passions without compromise—principles that defined Cranston’s life and work.

By positioning Cranston not only as a figure skating pioneer but also as a major cultural contributor and Canadian icon, Toller International plays a central role in the long-term recognition of his impact on sport, art, and national identity.

Cranston was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1976, the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, the Canadian Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 1997, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, and Canada's Walk of Fame in 2003. He was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1977, and received a Special Olympic Order from the Canadian Olympic Association in 1995. He was inducted into the World Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2004.

References

Works cited

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External links

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Toller Cranston
Official artwork site at Art Evolution.com

Toller Cranston Artwork and Appriasals
- Donna Child Fine Art Gallery - Toronto - donnachildfineart.com
* Toller International - www.tollerinternational.com


at Experience San Miguel de Allende!

Episode 13: Toller Cranston
Audio interview at Open Kwong Dore
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1949 births
2015 deaths
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Figure skaters at the 1972 Winter Olympics
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Canadian LGBTQ painters
Members of the Order of Canada
Olympic bronze medalists for Canada
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Olympic medalists in figure skating
Sportspeople from Hamilton, Ontario
Sportspeople from Kirkland Lake
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World Figure Skating Championships medalists
Medalists at the 1976 Winter Olympics
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École des beaux-arts de Montréal alumni
20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people
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