Radio work and stand-up comedy In the mid-1970s, he acted on the New York and
Boston stage and did voice-over work for Boston radio station
WBCN. Collins's 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 San Francisco International Stand-Up Comedy Competition.
Voice acting Collins 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. When he began regular voice work, he adopted the
stage name Chris Latta, as another
Screen Actors Guild actor was performing as Chris Collins. In 1983, Collins began voicing
Cobra Commander for a
five-part G.I. Joe animated mini-series. He continued voicing the role in a second five-part animated mini-series in 1984, a regular animated series beginning in 1985, a 1987
direct-to-video animated movie and a
1989 animated series. Co-star
Neil Ross, who voiced
Shipwreck,
Buzzer, and
Dusty in the show, praised Collins' performance for his ability to "howl and scream" for hours without losing his voice, claiming he had "
barbed wire" for vocal cords. Starting in 1984, Collins voiced the
Decepticon Starscream for the
Transformers animated series. He voiced other G.I. Joe and Transformers characters in these series as well as in toy commercials. These included the
Autobot scientist Wheeljack, the Autobots' human friend Sparkplug Witwicky, the G.I. Joe Marine
Gung-Ho and the
Dreadnok Ripper. In
Inhumanoids, he voiced D'Compose and Tendril. In
Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, he voiced Darkstorm and Cravex. He provided voices in
The Real Ghostbusters, credited as Chris Collins. In
The Simpsons, Collins originated the voice of
Mr. Burns in the first-season episodes "
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", "
The Telltale Head", and "
Homer's Odyssey", and recorded lines as
Moe Szyslak for "The Telltale Head" and "
Some Enchanted Evening" (but was dubbed over in the latter). Along with several other early
Simpsons voice actors, he left during the first season.
Hank Azaria took over the voice of Moe, while
Harry Shearer assumed the role of Mr. Burns. In a 2018 interview with
GQ, Azaria commented on replacing Collins as Moe, saying that he did not find out until years later that he had replaced another actor. Azaria said that when he asked why he had replaced Collins, he was told by
Matt Groening, "He (Collins) was great... He was just a dick. His voice was great, he was just kind of jerky to everyone." Azaria continued, "Think about how awful—that guy could have been on
The Simpsons his whole life. Lesson to you kids: Always be nice!"
Live action Later in the 1980s, he adopted the stage name of Christopher Collins and acted in many live-action television series and motion pictures. In
Star Trek: The Next Generation, he played
Klingon Captain Kargan in the episode "
A Matter of Honor" and Pakled Captain Grebnedlog in the episode "
Samaritan Snare". In
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he portrayed two different Markalians: Durg in "
The Passenger", and an unnamed assistant to The Albino in "
Blood Oath". 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). He portrayed a mugger on an episode of
Seinfeld titled "
The Subway". He appears as Mr. Forbes in a first-season episode of
NYPD Blue titled "Abandando Abandoned". In 1989, he hosted ''
King Koopa's Kool Kartoons'', but was later fired from the show and replaced with
Patrick Pinney allegedly due to inappropriate behavior toward crew and audience members. His first live-action feature film appearance is a bit part as the sharing husband in the film
Road House. He appeared in
True Identity,
Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot,
Blue Desert, and
A Stranger Among Us. On April 28, 2012, Collins was posthumously inducted into the
Transformers Hall of Fame. His daughter Abigail accepted on his behalf. ==Personal life==