Adam Beach leaving
‘Law and Order: SVU’

Adame Beach, a star of "Law and Order: SVU," is not having his contract renewed by NBC. He plans to branch out into other projects. {Associated Press]

By: Bill Redekop
Winnipeg Free Press

HOLLYWOOD — Adam Beach's contract with NBC was not renewed, freeing him to work on other projects.

The show did not renew his contract. Beach was with the show for a year. No reason was given.

Ups and downs are part of the entertainment business, Beach said in a telephone interview from Jersey City, New Jersey.

Beach, 35, said the decision will give him more time to pursue other projects. His performance in Flags of Our Fathers in 2006, directed by Clint Eastwood, "has opened all the doors," he said.

One upcoming project is a movie called Paper Games, to be shot in either Winnipeg or Vancouver this summer, in which he plays a hit man.

Beach is also launching an Internet television talk show on aboriginal issues. The show will be shot with two cameras out of his home.

Also on his to-do list is a movie about Louis Riel. He would like to turn it from a regional story into an international one, "if it’s done right."

He started the Adam Beach Golf Classic tournament in the United States a year ago to fund aboriginal youth pursuing the performing arts. Last year’s tournament was at the Black Bear Gold Course owned by the Fond du Lac Band, a Lake Superior Chippewa tribe in northern Minnesota.

He and some friends also hope to start an alternative justice program called Stepping Stone Ranch. Aboriginal youths out of the Remand Centre or jails could take the 18-month program on native culture, traditional values, and preparing them for the work force. The first ranch, which could be a year away, would be in Ontario, then one near Winnipeg and then in Alberta, Adam said.

In Law and Order, under executive producer Dick Wolf, Beach played detective Chester Lake. He is originally from the tiny hamlet of Vogar, near Lake Manitoba Narrows.
Beach is recently divorced from his second wife. He plans to live in California, he said