Christopher Collins
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Christopher Collins, aka Chris Latta (August 30, 1949 - June 12, 1994), was an American actor, voice artist and comedian, perhaps best known as the voice of the Cobra Commander on the G. I. Joe animated series and Starscream on the first Transformers series. He is also well-known among Star Trek fans for his guest roles on The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, along with many other TV shows and a number of films. In addition, he had a successful stand-up comedy career.
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Early life and career
Collins was born Christopher Lawrence Latta in Orange, New Jersey and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, New York City. His legal name became Christopher Charles Collins when his stepfather adopted him. Collins' biological father, Robert Latta, was a New York stage actor. His mother, Jane Morin, worked as an advertising executive. In his stand-up routine, he claimed to have grown up in Harlem and said his ultra-liberal parents had moved the family there "so he could meet some Negroes." (Morningside Heights is sometimes called "West Harlem.")
After a year at New York University, he studied acting, dance, voice and mime. In the mid-1970s, he acted on the New York and Boston stage and did voice-over work for Boston radio station WBCN. He made his animation voice acting debut as one of the English dubbers of the 1979 anime series Space Battleship Yamato, also called Star Blazers. He was most recognizable in that series as the voice of space marine Sgt. Knox during the Comet Empire installment.
Voice work
In 1983, Collins started voicing the Cobra Commander for a five-part "G. I. Joe" animated mini-series. In 1984, he reprised the role for a second five-part animated mini-series, which became a regular series in 1985. Also in 1984, Collins voiced a new character, Starscream, for a three-part "Transformers" animated mini-series. By 1985, he was voicing other G. I. Joe and Transformers characters in toy commercials, carrying on in those roles when the two television series made their debut. When he began doing regular voice work, he adopted the stage name Chris Latta because another Screen Actors Guild actor was performing as "Chris Collins."
Cobra Commander was the original leader of COBRA, usually portrayed (in the cartoon version), alongside the steel-faced Destro. Starscream was played as a megalomaniacal offsider to the chief antagonist (Megatron), and was more concerned with usurping his superior than following orders. After the Serpentor character was created in 1986, drawing power away from Cobra Commander, that role became very similar to that of Starscream's. Most striking, however, was the high-pitched, rasping voice Collins employed for both roles, which made the characters always seem duplicitous and conniving regardless of what they were saying, as well as adding an element of comic relief when they inevitably threw a tantrum.
Collins' success led to work on many other animated programs, including The Simpsons, where he originated the voices of Moe the bartender and Mr. Burns in the first-season episodes "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Homer's Odyssey." Along with several other early Simpsons voice actors, he left during the first season. Hank Azaria played Moe and Harry Shearer assumed the Burns role.
Other film and television work
Later in the 1980s, Collins began working as Christopher Collins and acted in many live-action television series and motion pictures. He played Klingon Captain Kargon and Pakled Captain Grebnedlog in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Durg in Deep Space Nine. In Married... with Children, he played Roger, one of Al Bundy's bowling buddies and a member of NO MA'AM (National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood).
Collins' first live-action feature film appearance was a bit part in the Patrick Swayze movie Road House. He also appeared in True Identity, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, Blue Desert and A Stranger Among Us.
Stand-up comedy career
Collins' stand-up career peaked in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he performed in most of the major comedy venues in the United States and Canada. In 1990, he won the prestigious San Francisco International Stand-Up Comedy Competition (http://www.sanfranciscocomedycompetition.com/).
At the beginning of his act, he would enter in a black trench coat and order the audience to applaud the person who introduced him. Afterwards, he would pick out an audience member who failed to applaud and tell him he had to "clap alone." Later, he told the audience he was not a comedian, but a "psychotic who learned to market his problem." Collins' comic persona was a loud, angry, mentally unstable man who liked to intimidate the audience. This image suited him well in his many bit roles in films and television, where he often played mobsters and hit men. He was a frequent featured performer on An Evening at the Improv and Caroline's Comedy Hour.
Personal life
Collins married twice and had three children. Early in his career, he divided his time between New York, Boston and Los Angeles before settling in LA in 1983. In 1991, he moved to Ventura, California. His family and friends knew him as a friendly, generous man whose kind nature belied his loud, belligerent public persona.
Christopher Collins died from a cerebral hemorrhage on June 12, 1994 following a long illness.
External links
- Internet Movie Database entry (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0490383/)