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California Dream House
He's the regimented Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb Jr in JAG,
but at home with his wife, daughter and cats,
TV heart-throb David James Elliott couldn't be more relaxed

Note: Click on the thumbnails of the DJE-pictures to see the larger versions of those pictures. The pictures of the rooms are not thumbnails.

When success in LA calls, an actor listens. Even if, as Canadian born and bred David James Elliott found out several years ago, he had just met the woman of his dreams (in this case, actress Nanci Chambers). But persistence conquers all. "We'd talk on the phone, and she'd say she was coming down to LA," David recalls. "But after a while I just had to go up [to Canada] and pack her bags!"

The two have been together "eight point three years," says the 36-year-old, 190cm tall actor. It's a detail that reflects his passion for his wife and has nothing to do with the cool precision of Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb Jr, the lawyer he plays on the naval drama JAG.

The California ranch house in LA's Brentwood section that David shares with Nanci and their four-year-old daughter, Stephanie, is consummately comfortable, with light, spacious rooms furnished in pine wood and neutral-coloured cottons. The home is decorated with candles, fresh flowers and various charming objects, like David's hand-wrought silver cigar paraphernalia and Nanci's collection of teapots and painted birdhouses.

David and Nanci both felt their house had to be in a safe neighbourhood, close to good schools, with a great yard. However, their dream home was surrounded by a chain-link fence, and lattice work obscured the view of the pool. David thought it was dingy, but Nanci saw its potential. The 195 square metre house is located on a double lot and features a huge sycamore tree so big, the roof had been notched to accommodate it. Its enormous limbs shade the home and hold a swing and a hammock. The house's one-story layout also appealed to David, who was tired of high-rise urban living.

They soon gutted the interiors (the kitchen has yet to be remodelled), laid down hardwood floors and tore out everything behind the house. Flagstone paths now wind their way around the property. High on David's wish list was a new pool, so they had the existing pool from the 50s dug out, resurfaced and lined with sea-creature tiles. It's a working pool, David points out. "I read in In Style that Matthew Perry, that guy from Friends, says nobody swims in their pool," he says. "I swim in my pool," a routine he follows after his long runs along the beach, "for fitness and meditation".

David's love for beautiful, classical things is shared with his wife. "Her taste is my taste," says David. "She'd start talking about something and I'd say okay, cool." But for all that, he does make it clear he didn't want his dream home too feminine. "I didn't want to be one of the girls."

The couple entertain about once a week, usually hosting Sunday pool parties and barbecues for eight. David says he is an instinctive cook rather than a recipe follower. His specialties include fish, rice and beans, and pastas and sauces.

Another natural talent seems to be his ability to balance work and play. As he explains, "I'm a Virgo, so I'm disciplined, but I'm on the cusp of Libra - that evens things out." But even for someone with good planetary alignments, achieving balance demands hard choices. Gardening is out, and so is golf, as David says both activities take too long. When he does have free time, he likes to spend it with his wife and daughter and looking out for the family's two cats, Marlon (as in Brando) and Kurty (for Russell, Stephanie's favourite actor ).

"When Stephanie was really young and we went into the first season of the show, she used to think I lived on the set," David says. "She's say, 'can we come and see you at the trailer where you live?' I'd say, 'No, honey, I live here with you.'"

David had hopes of a musical career, quitting school to form a string of punk rock bands. He played guitar, sax and harmonica in The Stolen Hats, the Dynamics, Dash Waterjones and His Case of Beer. "But I got frustrated." he says. "We were starving, I was living in a boarding house, working in a belt factory. It was grisly."

After David returned to school, a teacher heard him read King Lear and suggested acting. After attending acting school in Canada, he then appeared in stage productions before on-screen roles led him to the States. He's since appeared in China Beach, played a sex addict in Melrose Place and a furniture removal man in Seinfeld. He doesn't mind that his original plans fell through, because acting has had a musical pay off. "I finally got to buy a Martin [acoustic] guitar," he grins. "I always wanted one."