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By Ellen Vanstone, TV Guide (Canada), March 14, 1998

A more straight-up guy you couldn't find: Toronto native David James Elliott plays an all-American navy lawyer on JAG. He's devoted to his wife, Nanci Chambers, and their five-year-old daughter. He exercises, eats right and doesn't drink, smoke, eat sweets or stay up late. So it might come as a bit of a shock for some to discover that it was while working as "Dick, the male stripper" that Elliott first started taking extra-special care of his money-making physique.

"I learned a lot about working out when I did the play B Movie in Canada," says Elliott from his home in Los Angeles. The hit play, a spoof of Hollywood's cheesier heroes and traditions, won numerous awards after its run at Toronto's St. Lawrence Centre in 1988.

"As Dick, I had to come out almost naked for most of the play, so I had to be in great shape," says Elliott. "In those days I didn't have the money for a personal trainer. So I bought a lot of books and magazines and became my own personal trainer."

More than a decade later, he's still training hard, and the results continue to be spectacular. Elliott's good looks have been duly noted everywhere, from Entertainment Weekly to the New York Times, since JAG made its debut in 1995. He plays Lt. Cdr. Harmon Rabb Jr., a fighter pilot turned lawyer in the U.S. Navy's Judge Advocate General (JAG). This spring he will also appear in the movie Clockwatchers, a black comedy about evil office temps, starring Friends' Lisa Kudrow and Parker Posey. "I don't think lawyers have to be in top shape," says Elliott when asked if the navy would expect Rabb to be boot-camp fit. However, he adds drily, "It's tough for a leading man to get fat."

I've interviewed Elliott several times over the years, once in the late '80s, for a magazine cover story on "The 50 Sexiest People in Toronto." Back then he was playing Sonja Smits' cop boyfriend on CBC's Street Legal. When I saw him in Los Angeles recently, the 37-year-old actor had become an American TV celebrity, but he hadn't changed a bit. Tall, laughably handsome, with blue eyes and a runner's lean build, he could easily intimidate anyone he meets. Instead he leaned forward with a warm smile and shook hands, endlessly forthcoming at one press function after another.

At six-foot-four and 200 pounds, with a training regimen that includes at least 50 pushups and up to 500 situps a day, eight-mile runs, weights and kick-boxing, he may also be the fittest lead actor on prime-time television. "You cannot possibly stay in peak physical condition all the time," says Elliott, "but I try to stay within reach - a week away from being in demon shape in case I have to take my shirt off for a scene."

Though he's on-set 12 to 18 (and once 23) hours a day for nine months, Elliott uses bits of down time throughout the day to fit in a full workout, starting with morning pushups. "I had them put in a weight room for me [at work]," he says. "I'll go in there and blast a body part or do an all-round workout." He also has dumbbells in his dressing room. "I'll blast shoulders or work on biceps or triceps. Then at the end of the day, before I learn my dialogue for the next day, I do my situp regimen. It varies, 300 to 500 - the stomach is a weird muscle. You have to keep coming at it in different ways, so you need a lot of different exercises."

And yes, it can get boring. "You have to find ways to challenge yourself and keep it interesting," says Elliott. "The neat thing about this show is that the technical adviser was a 22-year veteran in the marine corps who is also a professional bodybuilder, so he's showed me some neat tricks."

Off-set he kick-boxes, though not competitively. "I've sparred in the past, but now it would be kind of detrimental to get shots to the face." Instead he works with Billy Blanks, a seven-time world karate champion, practising combinations and using a heavy bag. "It's an incredible workout, brutal."

According to Elliott, it's also a sport the whole family can enjoy. His wife kick-boxes, and their daughter takes karate lessons. "I get assaulted regularly with a flurry of punches and kicks before and after her lessons," says Elliott, who acknowledges there is a fine line between encouraging and pressuring children. "Sometimes she doesn't feel like it, but if I do a couple of moves on her, she gets excited and wants to go."

The family also swims together, in the backyard pool of their home in L.A.'s Brentwood neighborhood, or at the Elliotts' second home in the Bahamas. "I like free diving, with a snorkel instead of scuba gear," says Elliott, who also spear-fishes. "I generally go down about 50 feet or 60 feet, but I went 70 feet this past summer."

As any athlete knows, the risk in stretching the body's limits is injury. Running marathons has been hard on Elliott's knees, and doing his own stunts has caused at least one back injury. "I had to flip a guy who weighed about 230 pounds," he explains. "I picked him up, someone got in the way and I ended up having to hold him. I think I squished a disc."

One remedy has been to put orthotic devices in his shoes, which countered falling arches and made his knees feel better. But a huge part of healing injuries and staying fit is that "you have to watch your diet," says Elliott, who consults with a nutritionist. "I worked 17 hours last night. With that kind of schedule you get sick real quick if you're not very careful."

It's not a strict diet, more a way of eating, he explains, with rules about food-combining. "You don't eat protein with starch ever, you don't eat four hours before you go to bed - that sort of thing."

Does he really see a difference? "My energy levels stay higher for a lot longer. And since giving up caffeine and sugar I don't crash like I used to."

There is a downside, of course, such as the taste of goat whey, which Elliott is now taking for a specific joint problem instead of his usual colloidal liquid-mineral supplement. "The goat whey is a disgusting concoction, but it has natural minerals which are easy for the body to assimilate." And it really works. "My back problem has gone away, my knees don't hurt anymore. I feel like a million bucks."

Keeping his knees healthy means he can do what he loves best - run. "I played soccer as a kid, but I'm not a sports guy. I used to like to compete, but there's a lot of stress. I sort of compete for a living." Running, says Elliott, "is a lot like meditation for me. If I'm feeling anxious, angry or have feelings I need to deal with, I work out problems while I'm running. Eventually you find that Zen where you just groove with your breath.

"It's not only physically healthy, it's great for your head."