Late San Antonio actor Jonathan Joss honored in tribute on new King of the Hill season

San Antonio actor Jonathan Joss, who died in a June 1 shooting outside his former South Side home, was honored with a tribute on the King of the Hill animated series, which was revived this week on streaming service Hulu.

The show, which depicts down-home characters in the fictional Dallas-area suburb of Arlen, has returned after a 15-year hiatus. All 10 episodes of its latest season, the 14th, are available for streaming.

Joss — who played the popular Native America character John Redcorn — received a hero’s sendoff on the season finale. In the episode, the “licensed new age healer” laments that wild hogs are eating up his signature crop of red corn and tanking his business.

Central character Hank Hill and his friends band together to trap the hogs and save Redcorn’s livelihood. The Hills then decide to invest in the business to help it grow. Before the credits roll, the series dedicated the episode to Joss’s “loving memory” with a side-by-side image of the actor and his beloved character. Hours before Joss’s shooting death, he surprised the King of the Hill cast and series creator Mike Judge by appearing in the audience at a reunion for the show in Austin — an event to which he wasn’t invited. According to Variety, Joss stood up in the audience at the gathering and addressed the cast even though he wasn’t welcomed onto the stage.

This incident caused some viewers to speculate why Joss wasn’t invited to the reunion even though he’d been dealing with hard times. The actor was battling homelessness after a fire burned down his house in January, and he’d been forced to live in a hotel. King of the Hill fans rallied around him, contributing thousands to a GoFundMe campaign.

Acting work largely dried up for Joss over recent years, even though he’d appeared on episodes of Parks & Rec as recurring character Ken Hotate. Joss mostly picked up sporadic voice work on video games and some minor film roles.

After the reunion, Joss got a ride from a fan back to San Antonio, where video footage captured by neighbors showed him marching up and down the block in front of his former home with a pitchfork and yelling.

Shortly after, Joss was shot dead. Authorities charged 56-year-old Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez — a neighbor with whom Joss reportedly had a longstanding feud — with murder for the shooting.

The season finale for the revived King of the Hills is liable to be bittersweet for fans who wish Joss’ real-life struggles had been resolved with the same upbeat outcome as those of the character for whom he’s best remembered.

Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.

Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed

This article appears in Jul 23 – Aug 6, 2025.