The Last Months of Jonathan Joss’ Life Were Filled With Tragedy and Challenge
King of the Hill legend Jonathan Joss died on Sunday after suffering multiple gunshot wounds following a confrontation with a neighbor in San Antonio, Texas, but the long-time TV actor’s troubles didn’t start last night.
As San Antonio police confirmed earlier today, Joss, 59, died at his home on the city’s south side late Sunday evening after officers responded to a call about an ongoing shooting. Paramedics pronounced Joss dead on the scene, and law enforcement apprehended a suspect, neighbor Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, one block away from where they found Joss. According to witnesses, Joss and Ceja were embroiled in a bitter argument before Ceja pulled out a gun and shot Joss multiple times before attempting to flee in a vehicle.
Don't Miss
Joss’ death is a shocking tragedy, but as his friends and ers know well, Joss had been struggling ever since he lost his childhood home and three dogs in a house fire back in January. He is survived by his husband.
On January 23rd, Joss’ family home in San Antonio, which his parents first built in 1957, burned down with three of his dogs trapped inside. The actor had been without power for days leading up to the blaze, and he blamed the tragic fire on a gas-powered heater he had been using to keep himself and his dogs warm during the winter months. “I don’t have a job. I don’t have children. I’m missing one more dog. I don’t have a place to stay,” Joss lamented at the time.
Following the fire, Joss’ fans and some San Antonio community set up a GoFundMe to help the actor and his husband through the difficult time, for which Joss expressed immense gratitude. “My life and the life of my husband (Tristan Kern) will forever be touched by all of the and love,” Joss said in a statement to San Antonio Express-News. “Thank you GoFundMe and thank you world! For as long as the water flows and the grass is green, we will be grateful.”
While Joss and his husband seemed to be rebuilding their lives, thanks, in part, to the from their community, Joss again took to social media to express his deep sorrow when he wasn’t picked to appear on a King of the Hill at Austin’s ATX festival this past weekend. According to witnesses at the television festival, Joss appeared at the as an audience member and spoke critically about his exclusion from the event, citing his financial struggles and his personal connection to the show.
Following Joss’ trip to Austin, he again asked his following for assistance just yesterday, writing on his Facebook page, “Unfortunately my former manager did not help me with transportation to get back to San Antonio which was the plan. Now I’m being ghosted. Could anyone please give my husband and I a ride to San Antonio?”
Thankfully, a fan helped Joss and his husband out, and the actor's final public post read, “Our ride will arrive in a few hours thank you everyone we are grabbing some food and feeling thankful for the .”
Immediately upon his return home, Joss’ yet-unspecified conflict with his neighbor quickly grew violent. Whatever may have transpired between Joss and Ceja before the tragic shooting was certainly not the result of Joss’ recent struggles, but the actor’s public posts about his hardships in the months leading up to his death now remain a haunting reminder of the he needed, which his fans and loved ones worked so hard to provide him.
