“Parks and Rec” star reflects on 'terrible tragedy' of costar's death: 'A great guy and a fantastic actor'
- - “Parks and Rec” star reflects on 'terrible tragedy' of costar's death: 'A great guy and a fantastic actor'
Ryan ColemanDecember 30, 2025 at 4:00 AM
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Jay Jackson and Jonathan Joss on 'Parks and Rec'Key Points -
Jay Jackson, who played the lovably inept newscaster Perd Hapley on Parks and Recreation, is sharing his memories of his late costar Jonathan Joss.
Jackson calls Joss' murder by his neighbor in June "a devastating loss" of a "a great guy, and a fantastic actor."
"He was one of those guys who didn't let Hollywood go to his head," Jackson recalls, who "wasn't trying to beat it too over the head, like he was some big timer in Hollywood. He was a cool guy, and it was just a terrible tragedy what happened."
Jay Jackson is paying tribute to one of his Parks and Recreation costars, the late Jonathan Joss.
In a career-spanning conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Jackson looks back on turning the hapless, irreverent, yet utterly sincere broadcast journalist Perd Hapley into a fan-favorite recurring character. Perd interviewed just about everyone on the Parks core cast across his six-season run on the show, from Amy Poehler's type-A bureaucrat Leslie Knope to Aziz Ansari's slick hustler Tom Haverford.
But one two-hander stands apart from the rest: a season 3 scene with Jonathan Joss, who died in June at the age of 59.
"That was a devastating loss," Jackson says. "He was a great guy. He was laser-focused on the scene, you know. He'd get on the scene, get on the set, we'd do it, we'd laugh and joke between shots. They arranged the lights and we'd have a little conversation, and then he'd just go."
Ben Cohen/NBCU via getty
Amy Poehler and Jonathan Joss on 'Parks and Recreation'
Joss was shot outside of his San Antonio home on June 1. In the immediate aftermath, the actor's husband, Tristan Kern de Gonzales, accused their neighbor of the crime, saying he witnessed the shooting and citing "years of threats" over Joss' sexuality. In November, a grand jury indicted the neighbor, Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, with one count of murder.
"That was just a terrible tragedy, because he was such a great guy, and a fantastic actor," Jackson recalls. "He was one of those guys who didn't let Hollywood go to his head. He was just a guy doing it if it dropped in his lap. He was great. He went forward in a smooth kind of way, and wasn't trying to beat it too over the head, like he was some big timer in Hollywood. He was a cool guy, and it was just a terrible tragedy what happened."
Jackson notes that Joss "liked to talk politics" on set and at the show's annual parties. Jackson laughs recalling when, between takes, he'd have to tell Joss, "'Hey, man, careful! The mics are on!'"
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Joss, who was of Comanche and White Mountain Apache descent, first appeared on the season 3 episode "Harvest Festival." His Chief Ken Hotate was the elder of the fictional Indiana small town's local Wamapoke tribe, and the owner of its casino. In "Harvest Festival," Ken lobbies Leslie to move the town's titular annual gathering to a new location, citing bogus "ancestral curses" on the land that nevertheless whip the townsfolk into such a frenzy that Leslie's forced to concede.
Ken's checkmate comes when he books an appearance on Perd's local news program, Ya Heard? With Perd!, where the credulous reporter plays a poorly rendered animation of Ken summoning a legion of ghosts that roost in Leslie's body. "Is that what happened?" Perd asks Ken. "None of that happened!" a helpless Leslie shouts as she watches the segment. "That is exactly what happened," Ken flatly replies.
Danny Feld/NBCU via getty
Adam Scott and Jay Jackson on 'Parks and Recreation'
In the wake of his death, some of Joss' Parks and Rec costars paid their respects to the prolific actor.
"RIP Jonathan. Always such a kind dude," Chris Pratt wrote in a June social media post. Pratt and Joss not only shared the screen on Parks and Rec, but in 2016's The Magnificent Seven as well. "Sad to see. Prayers up. Hug your loved ones."
Nick Offerman added around the same time that the Parks cast was " texting together about it all day and we're just heartbroken... Jonathan was such a sweet guy and we loved having him as our Chief Ken Hotate. A terrible tragedy.”
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
