There was a time, only a few years ago, when David James Elliott was beginning to wonder about his decision to pack up and move from his native Toronto to Los Angeles. "There was a lean period, and things got scary," the [35-year-old] actor concedes now. "I was heavily in debt. But I always had faith. I hung in there. And it has paid off in spades."

Spades, indeed. Elliott has been in L.A. for six years. And since last fall, he has been cutting a dashing figure on the TV screen each week in NBC's Saturday night adventure series, JAG. Elliott stars as Lt. Harmon Rabb, Jr., a navy lawyer assigned to investigate cases for the U.S. Navy's Judge Advocate General. The cases take the character to sometimes-exotic locales. And, for Elliott, that usually means long days, often on location.

"It's a heavy workload - 14-hour days, every day," Elliott says with a long sigh. "But it's to be expected. You sell your soul, really, during the TV year. But it's nice work. It's exciting. It's well done, and it's interesting. And there are a lot of talented people working on this. So, in that respect, it's very rewarding."

The show has been rewarding for NBC, too. Slotted into a night often viewed as a dead zone, JAG soon rounded up enough of a following to get a full-season order. And the feedback the show has been getting everywhere, says Elliott, has been gratifying. "I had a guy come up to me during lunch the other day," Elliott recalls. "He came up to my table and said, 'Hey, man, I'm a marine vet, and I just want to tell you that you do the uniform proud.' Whatever happens to the series, I know it's been a quality show and, to me, that's what I always set out to be a part of."

Elliott set out to pursue a career on stage, making his way to the Shakespearean Festival in Stratford, Ont., before landing a TV role as Sonja Smits' cop boyfriend on CBC's Street Legal 11 years ago. A Canadian/American adventure series with Shannon Tweed aptly named Fly By Night followed. And then Hollywood beckoned.

"When I first came down, I got a lot of work right away, and it looked rosy," Elliott recalls. "And then there was a period where I didn't work for about a year." He and his wife went to the Bahamas for two months (his family owns property there) so he could reassess his career. He came back with a new attitude. "I started looking at every audition as just an opportunity to perform," he says. "When I did that, it changed everything."

Five episodes of Knots Landing were followed by a two-year gig as agent Paul Robbins on The Untouchables. Guest shots on Melrose Place and Seinfeld came after that, leading Elliott to another big career decision - a choice between a series-development at the Fox network, or the starring role on JAG. "I didn't have JAG yet, but I thought it was a great show and it had great potential," Elliott remembers. "So, I took a chance and turned Fox down. And now, here I am, busting my ass."

As usual, though, Elliott is hanging in there. "You kind of have to be a Zen master when you start a television show like this," he explains. "Not only do I have to shoot the series, but I have to stay in shape. So, you work 14 hours, you come home, then you start in with the sit-ups and then you've got to look at tomorrow's work. Come the weekend, I spend time with my family. I just try to be 'in the moment.' I think that's the key. That way, the pressure rolls off, like water on a duck's back." It's that notion of being "in the moment," says Elliott, that has helped him keep faith in his career intact.

"When I first came down to Los Angeles, there were a lot of guys from Canada here," he recalls. "And I remember when one of the last was leaving, he said, 'You're staying? It's unbelievable! You're going to stay until the bitter end?' I said, 'Well, I don't believe the end is going to be bitter for me.' So, I just hung in."