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Jonathan Joss Gonzales (December 22, 1965 – June 1, 2025) was an American actor and musician of Native American ancestry. He was best known for his role as Chief Ken Hotate in Parks and Recreation and providing the voice of John Redcorn in King of the Hill.
Joss was a musician, and performed as part of The Red Corn Band, a reference to the character he voiced in King of the Hill. In later seasons, inspired by Joss's offscreen performances, writers for King of the Hill introduced the fictional band Big Mountain Fudgecake, which Joss's character leads. He collaborated with the Graywolf Blues Band on the songs "Boogey Man" and "Still No Good", which were released on Graywolf Blues Band's album Dancing in the Rain.
In 2011, Joss launched a line of .
Before his death in June 2025, Joss returned for the King of the Hill revival series and had begun recording. On June 1, just hours before his death, he uploaded an Instagram video of himself walking around Austin and noting how he already recorded lines for four King of the Hill episodes.
At the time of his death, he was writing a Western graphic novel titled Two Sides to Every Coin. New King of the Hill episodes where Joss reprised his role of John Redcorn were aired on Hulu on August 4, 2025.
Joss married Tristan Kern de Gonzales on February 14, 2025.
Joss was not invited to the King of the Hill Panel show featuring other cast members from the show during the 2025 ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas. In a Facebook post that was later deleted, he said he was not invited to attend. However, he showed up in the audience instead. Joss got up to a microphone setup for a Q&A session whereupon he told the audience that his house had burned down and that it was "because I'm Gay men". Afterward, he was escorted out by security.
A day before his death, Joss appeared on a King of the Hill fan podcast and answered questions. When asked whether he was sober, his reply was "No... I've already lost everything, my house burnt down. I ain't going to give up drugs. I ain't going to give up drinking. They're my friends." He also revealed on the podcast that he had spent time in .
On June 1, 2025, Joss and his husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, were driven by a woman to their burned-down home to check the mail. Half an hour before his death, Joss was recorded by a neighbor holding a pitchfork walking up and down the street yelling. A neighbor told KSAT that a vehicle pulled up alongside the men and Joss spoke with the driver. A confrontation occurred between Joss and Ceja Alvarez, with whom Joss had been feuding. A witness reported hearing three gunshots and seeing Joss with wounds to his neck and torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Ceja Alvarez was arrested shortly afterward and reportedly told police, "I shot him", after being taken into custody.
Neighbors told a local television station that Joss and Ceja Alvarez had often argued for several years, but that no violence had previously occurred. A previous incident on June 8, 2024, resulted in Ceja Alvarez calling police, saying Joss was brandishing a crossbow. On May 24, 2024, reports of gunfire resulted in police confiscating Joss's firearms.
Gonzales posted on Facebook that the day they returned to their burned house, they found the harness of one of their dogs, leading to "severe emotional distress". Gonzales said Ceja Alvarez yelled "violent homophobic slurs" before opening fire and that Joss pushed Gonzales out of the bullet's path, saving his life. Gonzales said neither he nor Joss was armed. Additionally, Gonzales said that various people in the area had for years verbally assaulted them with homophobic slurs and threats to burn down their home. Gonzales described the attack as a homophobic hate crime, stating that Ceja Alvarez "started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us. He then raised a gun from his lap and fired."
The San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) released an initial statement saying that no evidence of a hate crime had yet been found but that the investigation was still ongoing, although they later retracted this statement and publicly denounced it as "premature". According to Gonzales, the couple had reported homophobic harassment "to law enforcement multiple times and nothing was done". The SAPD also confirmed that Joss had been a part of neighborhood conflicts and that the police mental health unit had made "repeated efforts to mediate conflicts and connect him with services that he may have needed".
On November 17, 2025, Ceja Alvarez was indicted by a grand jury for the first-degree murder of Joss.
| + !Year !Title !Role !Notes | |||
| 1994 | 8 Seconds | Medic Del Rio | |
| Texas | Commanche | ||
| 1998 | Almost Heroes | Bent Twig | |
| Additional voices | Direct-to-video | ||
| 1999 | Impala | John Eagle Claw | |
| 2001 | Christmas in the Clouds | Phil | |
| 2004 | Johnson Family Vacation | Casino Host | |
| 2010 | True Grit | His Tongue in the Rain | |
| 2016 | The Magnificent Seven | Denali | |
| 2021 | Grow Up | Judge Robert Lightfoot | |
| The Forever Purge | American Indian on TV |
| + !Year !Title !Role !Notes | |||
| 1994 | The Substitute Wife | Black Deer | Television film |
| Without Consent | Attendant No. 2 | Television film | |
| Walker, Texas Ranger | Young Raymond Firewalker | 6 episodes | |
| Texas | Comanche | Television film | |
| 1996 | Dead Man's Walk | Kicking Wolf | Miniseries |
| 1997–2009, 2025 | King of the Hill | John Redcorn (voice) | Main cast; recorded four episodes for the revival |
| 1998 | Winnetous Rückkehr | Wash-Ti | Television film |
| 1999 | The Wild Thornberrys | Ooloopie, Polar Bears (voice) | Episode: "Polar Opposites" |
| 2003 | Charmed | Brutish Demon | Episode: "Baby's First Demon" |
| 2004 | ER | Bert | Episode: "Time of Death" |
| 2005 | Justice League Unlimited | Sheriff Ohiyesa 'Pow Wow' Smith (voice) | Episode: "The Once and Future Thing, Part One: Weird Western Tales" |
| Into the West | Wovoka | Episode: "Ghost Dance" | |
| 2006 | Maldonne | Nico | Television film |
| 2008 | Comanche Moon | Kicking Wolf | 2 episodes |
| In Plain Sight | Joseph Parker | Episode: "Pilot" | |
| 2010 | Friday Night Lights | Owney | Episode: "Kingdom" |
| 2014 | The League | Takoda | Episode: "Man Land" |
| Manhattan Love Story | Driver | Episode: "Happy Thankmas" | |
| 2011–2015 | Parks and Recreation | Ken Hotate | 5 episodes |
| 2015 | The Messengers | Mason Dakota | Episode: "Eye in the Sky" |
| 2016 | Ray Donovan | Lou | 3 episodes |
| 2019 | Chartered | George Herrera | Pilot |
| 2021 | Bridgewater | Joseph Hoskins | Podcast series |
| 2022 | Tulsa King | Bad Face | 2 episodes |
| + !Year !Title !Voice role !Notes | |||
| 1996 | Raymond Wolfwalker | ||
| 1997 | Richard Whitefeather | ||
| 2000 | King of the Hill | John Redcorn | |
| 2010 | Trauma Team | Hank Freebird | |
| Red Dead Redemption | The Local Population | ||
| 2016 | John Fairbanks | ||
| 2019 | Days Gone | Alkai Turner | |
| 2020 | Wasteland 3 | Payaso Wannabe | |
| 2023 | Robert Rainwater |
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