Canadian actor Adam Beach first appeared in a minor role in the TV film ‘Lost in the Barrens’ (1990). In the 1993 drama series ‘North of 60,’ he played a recurring role and made his film debut in the drama film ‘Cadillac Girls.’ In the 1994 action-adventure film ‘Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale’ (1994), he starred as ‘historical Native American Squanto.’
Beach appeared in various TV series, such as ‘Walker, Texas Ranger,’ ‘Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years,’ ‘Touched by an Angel,’ ‘The Rez,’ ‘Dead Man’s Gun,’ ‘Higher Ground,’ ‘The Dead Zone,’ and more.
Beach’s film appearances include ‘Dance Me Outside’ (1995), ‘Coyote Summer’ (1996), ‘Smoke Signals’ (1998), ‘Mystery, Alaska’ (1999), ‘The Last Stop’ (2000), ‘Smoke Signals’ (1998) and ‘The Art of Woo’ (2001).
Beach played Native American salesman ‘Kickin’ Wing’ in the successful adventure-comedy film ‘Joe Dirt (2001) and its sequel, ‘Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser’ (2015). He co-starred with Nicholas Cage in the war film ‘Windtalkers’ (2002), which is based on the true life of WWII Navajo code-talkers. Next, he starred in the TV mystery film ‘Skinwalkers’ (2002), wherein he played ‘Officer Jim Chee,’ the role which he reprised later in TV films ‘Coyote Waits’ (2003) and ‘A Thief of Time’ (2004). He played the lead in the TV movie ‘Johnny Tootall’ (2005).
His performance as Native American WWII US marine ‘Ira Hayes’ in the Clint Eastwood-directed war-film ‘Flags of Our Fathers’ (2006) earned him acclaim and ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nominations. Beach next starred in the historical drama TV film ‘Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee’ (2007), which was based on historian Dee Brown’s novel. He executive-produced and starred in the suspense-drama film ‘Older than America’ (2008).
His other notable TV series roles came in ‘Everwood,’ ‘Third Watch,’ ‘JAG,’ ‘Moose TV,’ ‘Hawaii Five-O’ ‘Big Love,’ and others. He played ‘Detective Chester Lake’ in the 8th and 9th seasons of ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’ (2007-2008), and the lead, ‘Bobby Martin,’ in the drama series ‘Arctic Air’ (2012-2014).
He played the supporting role in the sci-fi Western action film ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ (2011), and portrayed the Canadian war-hero and decorated First Nation soldier ‘Tommy Prince’ in ‘Tommy Prince: Prince of the Devils’ (2011).
Beach appeared in the crime comedy TV series ‘Backstrom’ (2015) and the mystery-drama series ‘Nancy Drew’ (2019-2020). He also starred in the action/sci-fi film ‘Ice Soldiers’ (2013), the DC Comics superhero film ‘Suicide Squad’ (2016) as ‘Slipknot,’ the revisionist Western film ‘Hostiles’ (2017), the drama film ‘Juanita’ (2019), the biographical drama film ‘Percy’ (2020) and the sci-fi film ‘Swan Song’ (2021).