Christopher Charles Collins (born Christopher Lawrence Latta; August 30, 1949 – June 12, 1994) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He is best known as the voice of Cobra Commander in the G.I. Joe animated series and Starscream in the first Transformers animated series. He had a few guest roles in the Star Trek series The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, he voice acted Moe Szyslak and Mr. Burns in the first season of The Simpsons (1989–1990), and he had many other roles in television series and films. He also had a successful stand-up comedy career. Early life Christopher Lawrence Latta was born in Orange, New Jersey to Robert Latta, a New York stage actor, and Jane Morin, an advertising executive. He grew up in the Morningside Heights (sometimes called "West Harlem") section of Manhattan, New York City. His legal name became Christopher Charles Collins when his stepfather adopted him. 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". After a year at New York University, he studied acting, dance, voice, and mime. Career 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. At the beginning of his act, he entered in a black trench coat and ordered the audience to applaud the person who introduced him. He picked an audience member who failed to applaud and told him he had to "clap alone". He told the audience he was not a comedian, but a "psychotic who learned to market his problem". His comic persona was a loud, angry, mentally unstable man who liked to intimidate the audience. He was a frequent featured performer on An Evening at the Improv and Caroline's Comedy Hour. 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