[4] 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.

Cranston co-wrote the autobiographical Zero Tollerance (1997) with Martha Lowder Kimball, and a second volume, When Hell Freezes Over: Should I Bring My Skates?

After leaving the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Cranston became self-supporting as an artist, making enough money to cover his skating expenses.

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.

[5] After failing to make the Canadian team for the 1968 Winter Olympics, Cranston struggled with motivation and lack of training discipline.

[9][10] Ellen Burka required him to do complete run-throughs of his entire program[5] and his results began to improve: third at the Canadian championships in 1969, and second in 1970.

[12] 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.

Soon reports from competitions of this period began to mention younger skaters[14] 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.

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.

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.

[16] 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.

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.

[22] The ice show was broadcast as a special on ABC's Wide World of Sports recorded in the arena in Montreal, Canada.

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.

[26] His other television credits included a cameo appearance in an ice ballet production of "The Snow Queen" (1982),[27] starring John Curry and Janet Lynn.

[29] He made a non-skating acting appearance in the 1983 short film "I Am a Hotel", a music video featuring songs by Leonard Cohen.

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.

[33][34] Cranston continued to perform in Canada with Stars on Ice and IMG's smaller-city tour, Skate the Nation, for the next few years.

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.

His sister, Phillippa Baran, took over the handling of his affairs upon his death, and was subsequently sued by her two surviving brothers for, among other things, fraud.