Adam Beach (born November 11, 1972) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles as Victor in Smoke Signals, Frank Fencepost in "Dance Me Outside",Tommy in Walker, Texas Ranger, Kickin' Wing in Joe Dirt, U.S. Marine Corporal, Ira Hayes in Flags of Our Fathers, Private Ben Yazzie in Windtalkers, Dr. Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Chester Lake in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Officer Jim Chee in the film adaptations of Skinwalkers, Coyote Waits, and A Thief of Time. He starred in the Canadian 2012-2014 series Arctic Air, and played Slipknot in the 2016 film Suicide Squad.

Early life

Beach was born in Ashern, Manitoba. His ancestry is mainly Native Canadian but he also has some Icelandic roots through his great-grandmother.[citation needed] As a member of the Saulteaux First Nations, Beach spent his early years with his two brothers on the Lake Manitoba/Dog Creek First Nation Reserve at Lake Manitoba. When Beach was eight years old, his mother, Sally Beach, eight months pregnant with a baby girl, was killed by a drunk driver.

Eight weeks after his mother's death, the family, stricken with grief, discovered Adam's father, Dennis, drowned near the community. It is unclear whether Dennis's death was an accident or if he committed suicide. Adam and his two brothers initially went to live with their grandmother. He lived with his grandmother from age 8 to age 12. Five years after their parents' deaths, the three brothers were taken to Winnipeg to live with an aunt and uncle: Agnes and Chris Beach (his father's brother). Adam refers to his Uncle Chris as "Dad".

Beach attended a drama class at Gordon Bell High School. He began performing in local theatre productions, and eventually dropped out of school to take a lead role at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.

Personal life

Adam Beach has been married three times and has three children. He had two sons, Noah (born 1996) and Luke (born 1998), with his first wife Meredith Porter (1999–2002). He did not have any children with his second wife, Tara Mason. They married in 2003, but have since separated. In 2008 his now wife Summer Tiger gave birth to a daughter, Phoenix. He later began dating Leah Gibson, his co-star on "Arctic Air". Beach stated in a Huffington Post interview that the two met each other on set.

Career

At age 18, Beach won a small role in the miniseries Lost in the Barrens, based on the Farley Mowat novel. In the following years, he continued to work in local theatre and guest-starred on television shows like Walker, Texas Ranger and Touched by an Angel. Shortly afterwards, Beach was cast as a regular on the television shows North of 60 and The Rez.

After his performance in Dance Me Outside he starred in Smoke Signals, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. He took a small role in Disney's Mystery, Alaska in 1999 and in 2000 accepted a role in the thriller, The Last Stop. Beach then appeared in Helen Lee's The Art of Woo and the 2001 hit Joe Dirt as Kickin' Wing, a Native American fireworks salesman. The producers of Joe Dirt had originally wanted to hire Evan Adams for the parody of his character in Smoke Signals, but accidentally called Beach instead.

In 2002, Windtalkers, starring Beach, came out in theatres. To prepare for this role, Beach spent six months learning the Navajo language. He was also able to use this skill in his next project, Skinwalkers, directed by Chris Eyre, who gave him his breakout role in Smoke Signals. Name of the character he played was Private Ben Yahzee. The name cited in the header is spelled incorrectly.

Between large-scale projects, Beach made small television appearances on such shows as JAG and Third Watch. Also, in 2003, he returned to the character that he first portrayed in Skinwalkers in the movie Coyote Waits. He also made a guest appearance in the hit show The Dead Zone as a Native shaman (in the episode "Shaman").

In 2006, Beach portrayed Ira Hayes in Clint Eastwood's feature film Flags of Our Fathers. During the filming of this movie, both Beach's grandmother and his best friend died. Beach commented, "And if you add those up, there's a lot of emotion. When you're doing a movie, when you let go emotionally, there's nothing to grab onto," he said about the deaths. About playing the part, Beach said, "For me, playing Ira was a meaningful relationship. I would call it – trying to find out how he was, or how he thought and felt". The movie won two Academy Award nominations and Beach was nominated for multiple Best Supporting Actor honors.