David James Elliott Biography

David James Elliott
Biography

Birth name
David Smith
Date of birth (location)
21 September 1960,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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David James Elliott was born on September 21, 1960, in Milton (a small suburb city of Toronto), Ontario, Canada. He is the second of three sons of Arnold Smith, a heating and plumbing wholesaler-contractor, and his wife, Pat, an office manager. Arnold Smith had come to Canada from the Bahamas. David Smith grew up in Milton, but spent much time in the Bahamas, as most of his relatives live there.

Mr. Elliott did not set out to be an actor. His early interest was in music - rock 'n roll music. He was front man for a band, and even briefly quit high school to play with the band full time. The band left Milton and went to the big city -Toronto. There the band members got questionable digs in boarding houses and played gigs at night, while trying to earn a pittance to live on during the day. Mr. Elliott at one point was working in a belt factory.

The group, which went by various names - the Supervisors being one (one of the band stole some T-shirts with the title "Supervisor" on them) - kept breaking up. Finally, Mr. Elliott decided that enough was enough, and went back to finish high school. He was only 19.

His theatre history class was studying King Lear, and he read the part of Lear. His teacher was impressed by his reading and encouraged him to consider acting as a career. He knew nothing about acting, in fact had never even seen a live play, let alone been in one. His brother told him that Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in Toronto had the best acting school in Canada, so he decided to audition there. He cribbed for the audition by reading a book on auditioning.

At the audition, he "forgot his classical piece, ... sang 'Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah' and .... faked .... through a scene from Sam Shepard." To finish, he started inventing dialogue. As Mr. Elliott recounts it, "... they saw some talent they could nurture. It was a miracle."

Prior to his graduation from Ryerson, Mr. Elliott auditioned for the world-renowned Stratford Shakespearean Festival in Stratford, Ontario. He was accepted as a member of its Young Company. He stayed at Stratford for two years, learning the advanced acting skills needed for classical theatre, and earned the Jean Chalmers Award as Most Promising Actor.

After Stratford he played the role of Dick the Male Stripper in B Movie: The Play, in Toronto. There he was seen by one of the producers of CBC's Street Legal - a night-time soap opera about lawyers. They were looking for a "young hunk" as a love interest for the lead female lawyer. Mr. Elliott was asked to audition for the role of Nick Del Gado, the Toronto police detective. He was, to them, untried talent, and therefore scary, but his screen test was the best, and they decided to take a chance on him. The lead actress, Sonja Smits, described him thus: "He wasn't developed at all when he arrived ... but he was very tall and very charming."

Street Legal proved to be a breakthrough for Mr. Elliott. The producers kept giving him more to do, and he kept improving, so that by 1988-89, he was a legitimate co-star in the series, and became somewhat of a household name in Canada (named Flare magazine's Bachelor of the Year). There was talk of a Street Legal spinoff, with him in the lead role of Nick Del Gado, private eye. But before that came to pass, he decided to give Hollywood a try.

So in 1990, with the offer of a development deal from Disney, Mr. Elliott moved to Los Angeles. But first, in order to join the Screen Actors Guild, he had to change his screen name, as another actor was already registered as 'David Elliott'. So he added the 'James' - David James Elliott.

The development deal with Disney fell through when the head honchos decided that he was too young for the part they had crafted for him. Mr. Elliott found other work, doing a short-lived Canadian-French television series with Shannon Tweed, Fly By Night, and guest appearances on various television series. However, this period was fraught with difficulties, and he went through some lean times as he struggled to make his way in Hollywood.

In 1992, he and actress Nanci Chambers quietly got married at city hall, promising themselves a proper wedding later on when they had the means.
1992 was also the year he got a co-starring role as Treasury Agent Paul Robbins in the syndicated series The Untouchables. This gave the Elliotts some measure of financial stability for they were expecting an addition to their family. Their daughter Stephanie arrived in 1993.

After The Untouchables, Mr. Elliott again did the rounds of television guest appearances - Melrose Place, Knots Landing, Seinfeld, etc. Then he auditioned for the role of Lt. Harmon Rabb Jr., in JAG, and was successful. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.