Haid was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Grace Marian (née Folger) and Charles Maurice Haid, Jr. He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where he met Steven Bochco. He was associate Producer of the original stage production of Godspell in 1971, which was developed at CMU.
Haid's acting credits include the 1976/1977 series Delvecchio as Sgt. Paul Schonski, the 1980s series Hill Street Blues as Officer Andy Renko, and the 1980 movie Altered States as Dr. Mason Parrish. In 1984, Haid was cast as "The Fatman" (or just "Fats") in the never released movie The House of God. In 2004–2005, Haid played C.T. Finney, a corrupt New York police captain on the sixth season of the NBC show Third Watch. Haid provided the voice of the one-legged rabbit "Lucky Jack" in the 2004 Disney animated film Home on the Range. Twenty years earlier, Haid had voiced main character "Montgomery Moose" in the pilot episode of The Get Along Gang, produced by Nelvana. He was replaced by Sparky Marcus for the subsequent series.
During a visit to New Zealand in the 1980s, Haid was interviewed for a television news program and surprised many viewers when he discussed his Shakespearean background and love of live stage work.
