Johnny Joestar death: how he dies and who shot him

Johnny Joestar dies in 1901, roughly a decade after the race, when he uses his Stand, Tusk, to pull his son's illness into his own body. He does not die in Steel Ball Run. His death is told in the backstory of Part 8, JoJolion, and the race itself ends with him walking.

Spoilers: Steel Ball Run chapters 1 to 3, 24 to 27, 64 to 68, 84, 85 and 95, plus Johnny's death in JoJolion's backstory. The Netflix anime adds an episode every Friday (the official episode page lists what has aired), and the start of the race and Johnny\'s paralysis are already on screen. Everything from chapter 33 on, which includes every death and recovery answer here, is past the current batch, announced to cover only the 2nd and 3rd Stages per Anime News Network. JoJolion has no anime.

Pick your path: how he dies · who shot him · does he walk again · his age

Want to put yourself inside Steel Ball Run? YourCrush.AI turns this post's original character recipe, Wade Calloway, into someone you can talk to.

How did Johnny Joestar die?

Johnny Joestar dies in 1901, roughly ten years after Steel Ball Run, when he uses Tusk to take his son's illness onto himself. His wife Rina had fallen ill first, the illness passed to their son, and the details of the johnny joestar death come to us through the backstory of Part 8, JoJolion.

Johnny Joestar is the lead of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 7, Steel Ball Run, a former jockey from Danville, Kentucky, born Jonathan Joestar, who enters an 1890 horse race paralysed from the waist down. CBR's Higashikata family history tells the ending: he marries Rina Higashikata, she falls ill, the illness passes to their son George, and Johnny uses Tusk to take the disease onto himself, which kills him in 1901. The story sits in JoJolion chapter 22, "Morioh Town: 1901", in volume 5, per Wikipedia's JoJolion chapter list, whose summary reads: "Johnny Joestar brought the Holy Corpse to Morioh to cure his wife's mysterious illness".

Spoiler: how Johnny dies

Morioh, Japan, 1901. Johnny has brought the Holy Corpse here to cure his wife's illness, and the illness has passed to his son. So Johnny does with Tusk what he never did with anything before the race. He takes the cost himself. The disease leaves the boy and kills the father, per CBR.

Our reading, and only ours: the whole Johnny Joestar death story reverses the shortcut that crippled him. He lost his legs taking something that was not his to take. He dies giving something away.

How YourCrush.AI lets you talk a washed-up rider back into the saddle

You can coach, or be coached by, a rider whose fall was his own fault. YourCrush.AI drafts a character's description, backstory and greeting from a name and an image, so the recipe below is a starting point you edit. YourCrush.AI keeps pinned memories, so he remembers the fall you talked about in your first session. YourCrush.AI lets you branch a story, so you can play the race where he tells you the truth and the one where he never does.

No Steel Ball Run character has a chat page with us, and this is not Johnny. It is an original adult with a similar wound. Paste it into the character creator.

Name (33 of 40 characters): Wade Calloway, the Comeback Rider

Behaviour mode: natural · Category: Anime

Traits (5): Arrogant, Impulsive, Emotional, Loyal, Honest

Speaking style (4 words): blunt, restless, raw, quick

Description: Wade Calloway is 28, a former champion steeplechase rider whose own showing-off caused the fall that ended his career. He took a jump he had no business taking, to impress a crowd, and his horse paid for it too. He now trains other people's horses in a yard outside town. He is sharp-tongued, fast to anger, faster to apologise, and he hates pity more than anything. He walks with a stick he refuses to talk about. He treats you as the new rider he has agreed to coach for one last big race, and he expects you to listen.

Backstory: You watched Wade ride before the fall, from the cheap seats, and you never forgot it. When you got your first real horse you went to his yard and asked him to coach you. He said no twice. He said yes the third time, because your mare reminded him of his. You have trained together for a month. He has not told you that the fall was his fault, and you have heard the rumours.

Greeting: *Wade leans on the rail and watches your horse refuse the water jump for the third time.* "It's not the horse. You're showing off for the stands, and she knows it. I did the same thing once and it cost me everything. Again. And this time look at the jump, not at them."

Does Johnny Joestar die during the race in Steel Ball Run?

No. Johnny survives Steel Ball Run. He takes a gunshot to the head from the President in Philadelphia and lives, and with Steven Steel's help he cancels his own infinite rotation after it gets turned back on him at the finish.

Both events are documented in Wikipedia's volume summaries. The head shot lands in volume 17 (chapters 64 to 68). The rotation comes back at him in volumes 23 and 24, when an alternate-world Diego Brando turns Johnny's own infinite rotation against him and Steven Steel helps him shut it down (chapter 95). For the full sequence of the race's last stages, from Philadelphia to Manhattan, see the story of the race's final stages.

Who shot Johnny Joestar?

Two people shoot Johnny. An unnamed man in a theatre queue puts a bullet in his back before the race and paralyses him. President Funny Valentine shoots him in the head in Philadelphia. Johnny had cut in line to impress a date and paid bribed doormen to have the man thrown out. The man came back with a gun.

Scene 1: the theatre queue

Chapter 3 tells it in flashback. Johnny is a young jockey, out with a date, and the queue for the theatre is long. He cuts it, then pays the doormen to throw out a man standing in the queue.

Spoiler: how Johnny lost the use of his legs

The man comes back with a gun and shoots Johnny in the back, per the JoJo fan wiki's chapter 3 page; Screen Rant sums it up as "paralyzed after cutting a line to impress a date". The shooter is never named.

In our imagining, Johnny years later, honest with himself for once: *"He wasn't a villain. He was a man in a queue. I was the one who decided the line didn't apply to me."*

Scene 2: the steel ball

San Diego, September 1890, at the start of the race told in when and where Steel Ball Run takes place. Johnny sits in a wheelchair, watching riders from every country, when a stranger with gold teeth walks by spinning a steel ball.

Spoiler: why Johnny enters the race

Johnny touches the ball and his legs move for a moment, per Wikipedia's volume 1 summary. The stranger is Gyro Zeppeli, a master of the Spin, and Johnny enters the race to learn his secret (chapters 1 to 3).

Our imagining of what he says to Gyro that day: *"I don't care about your race or your money. My legs moved. You are going to tell me how, or I am going to follow you to New York until you do."*

Scene 3: Philadelphia

Months and thousands of kilometres later, the President comes himself.

Spoiler: the second time Johnny is shot

In Philadelphia, the President shoots Johnny in the head, and Johnny survives (chapters 64 to 68), per Wikipedia's volume 17 summary. The whole of that stretch is told in the story of the race's last stages.

What Stand does Johnny Joestar use, and how does it grow?

Johnny's Stand is Tusk, and he gets it by absorbing the left arm of the Holy Corpse in chapters 24 to 27. From there it grows through four ACTs. ACT4, reached in chapter 85 after Gyro's last lesson, is the infinite rotation that beats the President.

The JoJo fan wiki puts the four ACTs in chapters 26, 43, 59 and 85, which lines up with Wikipedia's summaries for volumes 5, 11, 15 and 22. ACT2 arrives when Gyro teaches him the golden ratio during the Sandman fight.

Scene 4: ACT4

Chapter 84. Gyro throws everything into one last steel ball, and it is not quite enough. Valentine kills him, and before he dies he leaves Johnny a lesson, per Wikipedia's volume 21 summary. How Gyro dies and what the lesson was has its own post.

Spoiler: how Johnny's Stand reaches its last form

The lesson, in the fan wiki's quotation, is "the shortest path was a detour". In chapter 85 Johnny understands it, and Tusk reaches ACT4, the "infinite rotation", per Wikipedia's volume 22 summary. Valentine offers to find him "another Gyro" from another dimension if he undoes it. Johnny suspects deception, and in chapter 89 he kills the President in a gunfight.

Johnny Joestar sitting in the snow with a golden spiral of light around his finger

Tusk reaches ACT4, the infinite rotation, in chapter 85.

Does Johnny Joestar walk again?

Yes. Johnny walks again by the end of Steel Ball Run, "through the power of his Stand and the Spin." He walks onto the ship that carries Gyro's body home to Naples.

That quotation comes from Wikipedia's plot summary, and Screen Rant confirms the ending.

Scene 5: walking onto the ship

The race is over and Johnny has not won it. An alternate Diego turned the infinite rotation back on him at the finish, and Steven Steel helps him cancel it (chapter 95).

Spoiler: whether Johnny walks again

He walks. He leaves America to return Gyro's body to his family in Naples, per Wikipedia, with Gyro's coffin and Gyro's horse, Valkyrie, per the JoJo fan wiki. On the boat he meets the race's runner-up, Norisuke Higashikata, and his daughter Rina.

Johnny Joestar standing at the rail of the ship bound for Naples

Johnny leaves America to take Gyro's body home to Naples.

In our imagining, Johnny on the second night at sea, talking to the coffin: *"A detour. You could have just said 'take the long way, Johnny'. But then I wouldn't have listened, would I."*

How old is Johnny Joestar?

Johnny Joestar is 19 for most of the Steel Ball Run, which lines up with the 1872 birth year Game Rant gives him. By the time of his death in 1901, he's in his late twenties.

That 19 comes from the JoJo fan wiki's reading of chapter 64, not from a figure printed on a cover anywhere, and Game Rant's age table supplies the 1872 birth year. Game Rant lists his height as unknown, and so do we.

Frequently asked questions

What is Johnny Joestar's real name?

His real name is Jonathan Joestar, per Wikipedia.

Where is Johnny Joestar from?

He's from Danville, Kentucky, per Wikipedia.

Who did Johnny Joestar marry?

He married Rina Higashikata, the daughter of the race's runner-up. The two first meet on the ship to Naples, per CBR.

Is Johnny Joestar in JoJo Part 8?

Only in backstory. JoJolion covers his marriage, his son's illness, and his death in 1901, per CBR.

Does Johnny win the Steel Ball Run?

No. Pocoloco is the official winner after the rider who crossed the line first is disqualified, per Wikipedia.

What is Johnny Joestar's horse called?

His horse is Slow Dancer, per his official anime profile.

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How did Johnny Joestar die? Who shot him, how old he is, and whether he walks again