The voice of legendary character John Redcorn on King of the Hill, Jonathan Joss, was shot and killed Saturday night in San Antonio. He was 59.
The San Antonio Police Department confirmed officers responded around 7 p.m. to a report of a shooting at Dorsey Drive. Officers located Joss, who was born Jonathan Joss Gonzales, on the ground alongside the roadway. Emergency medical officials tried life-saving techniques on the scene but pronounced Joss dead shortly after.
Police also identified and arrested a suspect, 56-year-old Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, who was booked on a murder charge and taken into custody. No motive has been released, and the probe remains ongoing.
A Loss Resounding Through the Generations
To many, Jonathan Joss was not just an actor’s voice. He was the voice of John Redcorn, a figure who became a subtle icon of Native American presence on mainstream television. From Season 2, when Redcorn first appeared, until the show ended in Season 13, Redcorn was consistently addressed formally as “Mr. Redcorn” or his full first name. He was known as a spiritual advisor, masseur, and cultural curiosity in the make-believe suburb of Arlen, Texas. His storylines often dramatized the tension between tradition and assimilation, all narrated in Joss’s indelible, deliberate cadence.
In a time when Native voices so often were reduced to caricature, Joss imparted his character with winking stillness and wily gravitas. John Redcorn’s stoic stance, wind-blown hair, crossed arms, and secrets hidden behind sorrowful eyes spoke to Joss’s own authority as a performer.
The announcement comes with acute timing. A revival of King of the Hill will premiere on Hulu later this August. A preview credit sequence that was introduced mere days ago included John Redcorn passing by in his iconic tan Jeep. Now, what would have been a triumphant return will be bittersweet.
A Career of Significant Roles
Though perhaps best known for King of the Hill, Joss’s presence and voice translated onto numerous other projects. He gave his recurring role Ken Hotate, the Native American elder in Parks and Recreation, both heart and humor, navigating satire’s thin wire of honesty with aplomb. He had a role in Antoine Fuqua’s 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven and more recently appeared in Taylor Sheridan’s Tulsa King.
In 2023, he provided a voice for a character in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, a befitting culmination of a career that had quietly but firmly resisted being pigeonholed.
Despite how well he was doing, Joss had been facing severe personal hardship. A fire destroyed his San Antonio home in January. Three of his beloved dogs died in the blaze, according to an online fundraising campaign that raised more than $10,000. In a melancholy local interview later, Joss reported that he was unemployed at the time.
A Quiet Life Interrupted by Violence
The final chapter of Jonathan Joss’s life is one that should not have been written in these terms. He was not found behind a microphone, on screen, or on stage, but on a suburban street in the Saturday evening gloaming, his life taken by a random act of brutality.
Their silence speaks volumes. Shock, bereavement, denial. It’s hard to describe the void left by the untimely loss of a man whose voice, paradoxically, was so recognizable that it was programmed into American pop culture’s DNA.
At age 59, Joss had already suffered more than his fair share of tragedy. That he was supposedly unemployed, recovering from loss on a personal level, and struggling to make ends meet only makes his death not only a tragedy but a system failure to safeguard one of its own.
A Legacy of Quiet Defiance
Jonathan Joss was never the loudest guy in the room. That was the point, though. In an industry that frequently obsessed about yelling, he left space for quiet, for restraint, for someone like John Redcorn, who said so much with so little.
His legacy won’t be the shows he voiced or the characters he played. It will be the generations of Indigenous and Native children who saw themselves in a man who remained silent when silence was demanded of him. In an industry that so frequently ignored those stories, Joss made his voice known, and his silence today is deafening.
He is left behind by fans, friends, and a body of work that will keep on speaking for itself, even as we mourn the voice now absent from it.
Rest in peace, Jonathan Joss.
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