Part of Lost featuring Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia, Terry O'Quinn, and Naveen Andrews.
Rise to Fame
Almost a decade of modeling for Dolce & Gabbana and Calvin Klein, bit parts on Angel, and he was just about done. Lost cast him as James 'Sawyer' Ford, and the role fit like it was written for him. The Southern con man became the show's breakout character, and Holloway won a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television in 2010. He nearly missed it entirely.
In the Spotlight
Lost made him famous and left him with very little to show for it. Intelligence, a CBS lead role in 2014, lasted one season. Colony ran three seasons on USA Network but found a limited audience. Seven years of near-silence followed before Duster, a J.J. Abrams-created Max crime series in 2025, brought him back. The Abrams reunion didn't relaunch anything: Duster was canceled after one season. He's producing and starring in Flint, a Louis L'Amour Western. Done waiting for the phone to ring.
Side Notes
He grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia, in a town called Free Home, which sounds like a detail screenwriters would invent. He left the University of Georgia after one quarter when the money ran out and headed to LA, where modeling for Calvin Klein and Donna Karan kept the lights on. His first real screen appearance was playing a thief in the Aerosmith 'Cryin'' video. Sawyer was a con man, so the arc was consistent.