Adam Beach Joins the Cast of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is currently the most successful of the three Law & Order shows. It tells the story of the dedicated and 'elite' detectives who solve 'heinous' sex crimes in New York City. Special Victims Unit is much more character-involved than the original Law & Order. The performances of its two leads Mariska Hargitay- an Emmy winner for her role and Christopher Meloni, Emmy-nominated for his role - are central to the show's popularity with fans.The cast has also included Richard Belzer and Dann Florek for all of its run. Next season, the four, plus regular Ice-T, will be joined by a fourth detective played by Adam Beach.

Adam Beach has had some buzz attached to his name of late for his role in Clint Eastwood's film 'Flags of Our Fathers.' He is also scheduled to appear in the upcoming cable;e movie version of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. Despite this recent notice, Beach is is a veteran actor, starring in films like Smoke Signals and the PBS versions of several Tony Hillerman Jim Chee-Joe Leaphorn mystery novels. Beach also had a key guest role in the final season of the cops-EMTS-firefighter series Third Watch, playing the brother of EMT Carlos, a character who had spent the entire series dealing with the fact he grew up without family in the foster care system.

Beach guested on SVU this past season, teaming up with Ice-T's character, Fin, to, not surprisingly, catch a rapist-killer. Beach's character, Det. Chester Eastman, like many guest cops played by well known actors, was fairly well-drawn. We learned Eastman was a Brooklyn cop and New Yorker and that he spent hours at night walking the streets. Eastman, part of Brooklyn's SVU squad, also was slated to appear in the SVU season finale before starting regular duty with the team in the fall.

Fans of the good-looking, thirty-five year old Canadian actor know the majority of his roles involve various Native American/ Indian-themed movies, including the aforementioned Hillerman movies, Smoke Signals, and other films like Squanto: A Warrior's Tale, Spirit Rider, and the WWII Navajo codetalker movie Windtalkers. He was also in Lonesome Dove and will appear the upcoming Larry McMurty project, Comanche Moon and a documentary entitled Older Than America, on which he also serves as executive producer. In real life, Beach

Special Victims Unit was renewed for the 2007-08 season earlier this year and remains well-rated. This past season included several episodes without Stabler's partner Benson because Hargitay was on maternity leave. Other famous faces who appeared on the series this year include Mary Stuart Masterson, Emmy winner Kim Delaney, Tony winner Brian Dennehey and Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Hardenis reportedly a member of the Ojibwa Nation. It remains to be seen how much his native American heritage will play into his SVU role.