James Ford, better known by the alias "Sawyer" (/ˈsɔːjər/) and later as "Jim LaFleur", is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, portrayed by Josh Holloway.

Created by Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, he first appeared in the pilot as one of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 which crashed on a mysterious island, and remained one of the show's main characters.

Serving as an anti-hero since his introduction, Sawyer was initially portrayed as a selfish, conniving and sarcastic handsome flirt who hoards stashes of washed-ashore items for himself.

When they are sent back through time, Sawyer falls in love and forms a stable relationship with Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell), with whom he moves onto the afterlife in the series finale.

One of his scams involved waking up next to his victim and pretending to be late for an important meeting; as he rushes to get ready, his briefcase will "accidentally" spill open, revealing bundles of cash the woman "wasn't supposed to see."

With her interest piqued, he convinces her and her spouse to invest cash in a legally questionable, but supposedly lucrative business opportunity, before disappearing with the money.

While visiting the diner of Kate's mother, his partner (played by Kevin Dunn) forces Sawyer to resume his con on threat of death.

On behalf of the police, he cons Munson into revealing where he hid the money he stole; as a result, Sawyer's sentence is cut short, and the monetary reward he receives is deposited in an anonymous bank account for Clementine at his request.

While in Australia, Sawyer is arrested, at the same station visited by Boone, for assaulting Warren Truss, an Australian politician and leader of the National Party, during a bar fight.

Once the matter is solved, Sawyer experiences headaches and, after consulting Jack, is prescribed reading glasses, made from pairs found in the wreckage.

Sawyer removes the bullet from his shoulder prior to arriving back on the island, encountering the tail section survivors from the plane and being thrown into a pit.

Soon after, Sawyer sets up a long con, with the help of Charlie, in order to gain possession of the camp's entire firearms and medicine, using Sun as a victim of a faked abduction attempt.

After the funeral of Ana Lucia and Libby, Sawyer joins Michael, Jack, Kate and Hurley on the trek, where they are suddenly ambushed by the Others, tied up and taken to a pier.

Although originally unsure of the meaning of Charlie's dying message, "Not Penny's Boat," when the survivors split Sawyer chooses to go with Locke to the Barracks, telling Kate he was simply doing what he's always done: surviving.

After Sawyer warns Locke not to hurt "a single hair on his [Hugo's] curly head," he leads the rest of the group back to the beach.

He hands Aaron over to Kate and tells her to go back to the beach with Miles and the infant, while he insists on going with Jack to face Charles Widmore's men.

En route to the freighter Frank notices that the helicopter is quickly losing fuel due to a bullet hole in the gas tank.

James is then introduced to Daniel Faraday, who tells him the camps are not gone but that it hasn't been built yet and whatever Ben did in the Orchid station has made them constantly shift through time.

With the guidance of Charlotte, who collapsed earlier due to a deteriorating mental state and stay behind with Daniel, they find a well which leads to the Frozen Donkey Wheel.

James, Juliet, Miles and Jin head back to Daniel, who informs them Charlotte has died due to violent shifts through time.

Approaching the source of the commotion they see two men holding a woman hostage with a bag over her head after just killing her male companion.

Having previously experience with lying, he tells Horace his name is Jim LaFleur and he was a captain of a ship which had crashed on the island while on its way to Tahiti.

James is pressured to execute him for violating the code of truce between DHARMA and the Hostiles, but he has him locked in a cell and quietly contemplates a plan to free him.

The next day, he holds a meeting with only the Oceanic Six survivors and Juliet and reluctantly tells them his comfortable life within DHARMA is ending, thanks to Jack, Kate, and Hurley.

However, following the events in The Variable, Radzinsky, an antagonistic engineer of DHARMA's, discovers Phil in the closet and ties up James and Juliet in two chairs, furiously demanding answers.

Unfortunately, Kate also gets on, informing him and Juliet of Jack's intentions to detonate a hydrogen bomb which will decimate the Island and alter the past so Oceanic 815 will never crash twenty-seven years from now.

They all fall into the hole where the hatch door was supposed to be, and Kate suddenly hears moaning coming from underneath the steel, which leads her to believe Juliet may still be alive.

However, James learns she is lying and demands answers, until a cavalcade of armed men appear and escort him to their leader, Charles Widmore (Alan Dale), who has returned on a submarine.

In the series finale, James escapes the island on an airplane piloted by Frank Lapidus, along with Kate Austen, Claire Littleton, Richard Alpert and Miles Straume.

Some of these books may provide clues or parallels to the show, as when the audience sees him reading the science fiction novel The Invention of Morel, by Adolfo Bioy Casares Sawyer was originally a slick conman who wore a Prada suit.