John Kramer (colloquially known as "The Jigsaw Killer" or simply "Jigsaw") is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Saw franchise. Jigsaw made his debut in the first film of the series, Saw, and appears in all subsequent sequels, with the exception of Spiral. He is portrayed by American actor Tobin Bell. In the series' narrative, John is a former civil engineer dying from an inoperable frontal lobe tumor that had developed from colon cancer. After a suicide attempt, John found a new appreciation for his life, and dedicated the rest of his life to inspiring the same appreciation in others by testing their will to live. His methods include forcing his subjects through deadly scenarios, which he refers to as "games" or "tests", in which they are forced to inflict pain upon themselves or others in order to escape. These tests are typically symbolic of what Jigsaw perceives as a flaw in each person's moral character or life. He was nicknamed "The Jigsaw Killer" by the media for his practice of cutting the shape of a puzzle piece from the remains of those who fail, symbolizing their lack of survival instinct. The character of John Kramer was killed off at the end of Saw III, but appears in flashbacks in subsequent films. Fictional character biography Jigsaw was introduced in the 2004 film Saw through Dr. Lawrence Gordon's recounting of his first killings. Jigsaw is described as a mysterious person who kidnaps people he believes take their lives for granted and subjects them to "tests", usually mechanical devices rigged to maim or kill the subjects if they fail to complete it within a certain time period. Unlike most killers, Jigsaw never intends to kill his subjects; the purpose of his traps is to see if the subject has the will to live, as he hopes their experience will teach them the value of life, although he sometimes places his victims in situations where they themselves must kill others in order to follow the terms that he sets. As his victims increase, the media dubs him The Jigsaw Killer, or simply Jigsaw, because of the puzzle piece shape that he cuts out of the remains of unsuccessful subjects, which he explains in Saw II is meant to symbolize that the subject "was missing a vital piece of the human puzzle: the survival instinct". Throughout the first film, his identity