George A. Cohon, a Chicago-born entrepreneur who, by introducing the Big Mac — or the Bolshoi Mac — to Moscow in 1990, died on Nov. 24 at his home in Toronto. He was 86.

A Fuller Brush salesman in college with a flair for merchandising, Mr. Cohon abandoned his law practice when Ray Kroc, the McDonald’s founder, offered him the chain’s franchise for eastern Canada. Mr. Cohon borrowed $70,000 to buy the rights and opened his first restaurant in London, Ontario, in 1968. In 1971, he traded the franchise for McDonald’s stock and in 1992 became senior chairman of McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada, which included some 1500 eateries, and of McDonald’s in Russia.

Though waiting on lines was part of daily life in Soviet Russia, opening day in Moscow — Jan. 31, 1990 — exceeded all expectations when an estimated 10,000 people queued up in Pushkin Square for Happy Meals and double cheeseburgers. By the end of the day, around 30,000 people had sampled the menu at the mammoth 700-seat restaurant, emblazoned with its trademark golden arches. It was the beginning of what Mr. Cohon called “hamburger diplomacy.”

At McDonald’s in Canada, where he was chairman, president, and chief executive until 1992, Mr. Colon was a self-styled, hands-on “front counter kind of guy,” as he wrote in his memoir. He handed out hamburger-shaped business cards that included a voucher for a free Big Mac.