ONE REAL LIFE TO LIVE IN OJAI; IT'S SMALL TOWN OVER BIG APPLE FOR SOAP ACTOR.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Daily News Staff Writer

``Hey, star man!'' hails a guy on the street, wearing a grin and a gray sweat shirt.

``Hi, how ya doin'?'' Wortham Krimmer responds, offering a handshake and a grin of his own.

Further down the street, in a small English tearoom, a waitress confides, ``I think both Tea and Cassie are both idiots for dumping you.''

``I'll tell them you said that,'' Krimmer grins back, biting into a scone.

Later, as he pulls his sturdy sport-utility vehicle to a halt at a stop sign, a neighbor pulls up alongside. ``Where ya been?'' he queries.

``Been workin','' Krimmer responds. ``Out of town.''

Out of town, indeed.

Krimmer, who's become part of the fabric of life in the bucolic artists' town of Ojai, commutes 3,000 miles every four or five days to work in New York City, where for the past seven years he's played the upright-but-unpious Rev. Andrew Carpenter, rector of St. James Church, on the ABC daytime drama ``One Life to Live.''

Andrew's had some romantic reverses lately: His wife, Cassie, divorced him for another man; his soul mate, Tea, turned down his marriage proposal to return to her husband.

``Andrew's pathetically lonesome,'' said the curly haired actor, sipping a cappuccino in an Ojai coffee shop. ``He desperately wants a family, and with all the loss he's had (his amorous failures, the death of his brother from AIDS, his father from cancer), he wonders if he'll ever have one.''

But that's on TV. In real life, Krimmer has no such problems. He lives in the small Ventura County town he adores with a family - his wife, Mary Ellen, son Max, 10, and daughter Tess, 5 - he cherishes in a comfortable home on two country acres covered with fruit trees.

``This is my heaven,'' Krimmer said. ``Ojai's such a great place for an actor, because here, you really get away from the whole actor thing. People recognize me, but nobody cares. It's a nonissue.

``I feel really, really blessed. I am almost sickeningly happy. I have a very good life. But nothing comes without a price tag.''

Frequent flier 

The price tag is that looooong commute to work. In New York, he rents a tiny studio apartment a short jog from the Central Park-adjacent 51st Street studio, where ``OLTL'' is filmed.

``I come home for four or five days at a time,'' he said, driving along a country road that parallels the brush-covered mountains. ``If I have less than four days off, I don't come home. I end up spending about half my time in New York, half here. Actually, it works well. I'm 100 percent focused on my work in New York, and I'm 100 percent focused on my family in Ojai.''

It's a life - and a career - he didn't originally plan.

Krimmer, who admits to being in his mid-30s and that his real first name is Robert (his stage name, Wortham, is his wife's maiden name), studied to be a lawyer, but abandoned law school for acting. He worked his way through school waiting tables and managing apartment buildings; as a result, he's become a jack-of-all-trades who can unclog a toilet, hang drywall, build a fence and fix a doorbell.

And when he's home in Ojai, he puts those skills to use. He plays Mr. Mom, delivering kids to school and dancing lessons, taking the dog to the vet, doing laundry and cooking meals while his wife, a well-known photographer, is working in her studio or teaching photography at a local private school.

Although his stint on ``OLTL'' is what's made him best-known, at least among soap fans, Krimmer also appeared in many episodes of TV's ``The Paper Chase,'' had a role in the short-lived drama ``Family Medical Center,'' and appeared last fall in five episodes of the sci-fi drama ``Babylon 5.''

Meet the Rev.

But his favorite character is the one soap watchers see five days a week on ``OLTL.'' Andrew Carpenter - who's confronted such issues as hypocrisy, homophobia, gang violence, teen drug use, infertility and infidelity by both his wife and himself - has remained what Krimmer calls ``a great barometer'' for the people of fictional Llanview, Pa.

``Andrew speaks to the part of all of us that wants to do the right thing, to bring out the best in others,'' Krimmer said. ``To me, Andrew is kind of a crucible for examining humanity. He's gone beyond just being a religious guy.''

Krimmer longs to have his character become less church-bound and more of an ordinary man. It was his suggestion to show the reverend less in his clerical garb and more in work shirts, jeans and boots.

And he'd like to do more action-adventure, as he did several years ago, when Andrew - criticized as a coward by his career military officer father - shot and killed a Middle Eastern dictator to save the life of a friend.

``Andrew's a pacifist by nature, but he doesn't believe you put Ghandi up against Hitler,'' Krimmer said. ``There's a kind of deep injustice crying out, a rage in Andrew. He's a gentle soul, but don't cross him. When push comes to shove, he'll kick your butt.''

Krimmer, like his character, ``has got a good heart and a good head on his shoulders,'' said ``OLTL'' executive producer Jill Farren Phelps. ``And he's a wonderful actor, wonderfully professional.''

The actor admits at least one similarity between him and the character he plays.

``Like Andrew, I'm definitely someone who always tries to do the right thing - and sometimes falls short.''

Ojai on his mind

Andrew, too, might be comfortable in Ojai, a low-key town of less than 10,000 people that has become famous worldwide for its music festivals and for the artists who have their studios there. Other actors - among them Scott Bakula, Larry Hagman and Linda Kelsey - also make their homes there.

It was his wife Mary Ellen's allergy to Los Angeles smog that brought the Krimmers there, steered to the town by a friend. Searching for a home, they found ``a major fixer-upper'' and fell in love with the town. Krimmer loves showing it off to visitors, from the Mission-style downtown arcade to the park across the street, from the walnut orchards and meadows filled with cattle to the rolling hills that hem in the valley.

Parked on a high point, overlooking the valley, a smile steals over his face.

``Isn't that gorgeous?'' he asks. ``I love it here. The day we bought the house, I was coming up to sign the final papers, and the mountains were against the sky, and the sky was so blue ... and I began to weep. I couldn't believe I would ever be able to give my family this type of environment.''

The mountains that ring the valley are old friends now; he and his family hike through them nearly every weekend he's home.

And unlike soap actors who seem to spend most of their time off the set pursuing roles in movies or prime-time TV shows, Krimmer - who envisions someday teaching English to elementary school students - would rather stay home with his wife and kids.

``When I have time off from the show, I want to enjoy my family,'' he said. ``That's what makes the New York-California thing work.''

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1) ``I'm 100 percent focused on my work in New York, and I'm 100 percent focused on my family in Ojai,'' says Wortham Krimmer, who commutes 3,000 miles every four or five days to work in New York City, appearing on the ABC daytime drama ``One Life to Live.''

(2) Krimmer as the Rev. Andrew Carpenter on ``One Life to Live.''

(3) ``Andrew's pathetically lonesome,'' says Wortham Krimmer of his soap character. ``He desperately wants a family, and with all the loss he's had he wonders if he'll ever have one.''

Tina Gerson/Daily News