Jonathan Joss kept his late co-star Johnny Hardwick in his mind until the very end of his life, when the King of the Hill family suffered yet another tragedy.
Yesterday evening, San Antonio police arrived at Joss’ home to find the TV legend with multiple gunshot wounds, which they believe were inflicted by his neighbor, Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, whom the officers arrested just one block from the site of shooting. Joss’ husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, has since claimed that the shooting was a homophobic hate crime following a pattern of intimidation and abuse that went unaddressed by local authorities. Paramedics pronounced Joss dead on the scene.
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Just one day before Joss would die in the horrific tragedy, he made an appearance at a live recording of BWAAA! a King of the Hill Podcast in Austin, Texas, where he made numerous concerning and, at times, erratic comments. At one point, Joss expressed his wish that, when his own time would come, he would pass on the way that Hardwick had done back in August 2023, when, as Joss said facetiously, the voice actor for Dale Gribble “turned into soup.”
As fans of King of the Hill will recall, back in 2023, Texas law enforcement found Hardwick dead in his bathtub during a wellness check. Since Hardwick had died long before the police entered his home, his body had partially decomposed in the water, prompting Joss’ macabre comment on his old co-star’s passing.
The topic of Hardwick’s death arose during the live show when Joss was attempting to explain his awkward outburst during the King of the Hill reunion panel at the ATX Television Festival in Austin on Friday. Joss explained how he didn’t feel that Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and the select group of original King of the Hill cast members paid proper homage to the actors who had passed away since the show first became a hit, mentioning both Hardwick and Brittany Murphy.
“I felt bad, because I hated the son-of-a-bitch,” Joss crassly commented on Hardwick’s demise, “I hated Dale. I hated Johnny Hardwick!” As Joss explained, the acrimony began years earlier when “I had an offer for $250,000 to do 10 autograph signings within a year. I called Johnny up, I said, ‘I’m working on a production, we got so many things to do you get $350,000, I get $250,000.’”
Hardwick turned down Joss’ offer, saying that autograph signings were “not my cup of tea,” prompting Joss to develop a resentment for his co-star, which he would come to regret after Hardwick’s passing. “It broke my heart,” Joss said of Hardwick’s passing, “It pains you when you lose somebody, and you hate ‘em.”
But for all the misgivings Joss had for Hardwick during life, Joss admired the way Hardwick went out, saying, “I hope, when I pass, I go out bathing like Johnny, like a can of soup.”
Sadly, Joss met a more grisly end than his late co-star, leaving another hole in the King of the Hill cast list that will forever be hard to fill.
