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Danielle Spencer

By SARA TEMPLETON

Despite his rugged bad-boy exterior, with the alleged pub-room brawls, strip parlour excursions and other indiscretions, the ethereally charming Danielle Spencer still married Russell Crowe.

And, quite frankly, I find no issue with this whatsoever.

Show me an average Aussie bloke who hasn't become drunk and been in a fight, or gone out with the 'boys' to a strip club or looked at pornography at least once in their lives.

Beyond her oft-chastised choice in husband, and more to the point of this article, Danielle's career has spanned a good portion of the creative arts - music theatre and television being the predominant areas.

In Sydney, Australia, on September 29, 1970, Danielle Spencer was born. She grew up in Turramurra on Sydney's North Shore and her artistic and musical aspirations may have been influenced by her father, also a singer.

As a young child, Danielle started taking piano lessons and before she was 10 years old she was already writing her own songs, such was her creative drive. By the time she was a high school student, Danielle was not only singing, but also dancing - another passion - and playing in bands, which over time included her brother Dean.

While music and song writing had always been her focus, Danielle knew how difficult is was to break into the music industry and sustain a career - so she turned to acting in the short-term.

Proving that she was more than just a musician, Danielle's first foray into acting saw her star in a number of theatre productions, including Rasputin in 1987. Two years later in 1989, she scored her first official TV gig in the Australian drama series "The Flying Doctors", followed by "Mission: Impossible". As her résumé grew, so did her fortunes.

In 1990 Danielle got her first film gig in The Crossing, and also appeared in What the Moon Saw in the same year. On the set of the George Ogilvie-directed film The Crossing, Danielle met Russell Crowe and so began a relationship that would eventually lead to marriage and children.

"When I kicked off I was a dancer and singer and then I made a very conscious move into acting. But most of the time I was still playing and singing in different bands over the years with my brother. When acting started taking over, I was doing less music and I was frustrated that it was slipping away from me," Danielle said.

"...I took an acting job for a year to save some money so I could then concentrate on writing songs and making an album. After I finished I came back to Sydney and started writing seriously."

The job she was talking about was on the god-awful-but-strangely-addictive "Pacific Drive" alongside Rebekah Elmaloglou in 1995, and in the same year she also worked on the local soap opera "Home and Away".

During this period of intense television, theatre and film work, Danielle just managed to maintained both her love of music and also her relationship with Russell Crowe, despite his high-profile liaisons with Meg Ryan et al.

In 1999, Danielle recorded her first demo and sent her work to EMI for consideration. EMI was pleased with what it heard and so Spencer's next move was to find a producer who could empathise with her style. "It took me a few years to find someone to work with, someone who got what I was trying to do straight away," Spencer said.

"I could hear it in my head and it was quite clear to me what I wanted but it wasn't until I met Vince that it all clicked and we realised the sound."

In March of 2000, Danielle Spencer released Johnathon White, her debut single. Now her musical talents were on offer for everyone to see and, in addition to her initial recording success, her relationship with Russell Crowe blossomed.

At the 2001 Academy Awards, Danielle was seen hand-in-hand with Russell, who took out the 'Best Actor' Oscar award for his role in Gladiator, and later that year the pair toured America - Danielle Spencer and co. as the support band for Crowe's rock group, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts. Later that year, in September, Danielle's first album, White Monkey, made its debut.

In 2002, Danielle and Russell spent more an more time together, both in and out of the spotlight, and after asking her father for his permission, Russell Crowe proposed to Danielle Spencer with an expensive diamond ring in December 2002.

Danielle Spencer and Russell Crowe were married on April 7th, 2003, and were it not for the throng of media that surrounded Crowe's farm, we wouldn't have known every minute detail of the marriage ceremony, involving a cricket match among other things. More recently, the couple celebrated the birth of Charles Spencer Crowe on December 21, 2003.

Often quoted as saying she'd rather be remembered for her work than who she chose to spend time with, her music speaks volumes of her creativity. According to her official website, DanielleSpencer.com.au, her music is "...a sound never heard before from an Australian artist, introduced by the delicate yet urgent melodies of the introductory single Johnathon White and debut release Blast Off."

Some compare her to Tori Amos and others to Portishead, and while these comparisons are apt, it illustrates just how hard her brand of music is to describe. Unique is a good one.