He was 17 years old when he joined his brother in London and, driven by an early interest in the cinema, began training at the YMCA.

[3] Baird subsequently appeared mostly in film and television, though other stage work included A Wreath for Udomo (Lyric Hammersmith, 1961) and Ogodiveleftthegason (Royal Court, 1967).

Baird's most high-profile role, however, came in Michael Relph and Basil Dearden's racial drama film Sapphire (1959).

Baird's only true lead film role was in the 1968 Melvin Van Peebles drama The Story of a Three-Day Pass, in which he played an American soldier who falls in love with a white Parisian woman.

Other roles included The Whisperers (1967),[1] The Touchables (1968) (as a gay wrestler named Lillywhite), the horror film The Oblong Box (1969), and The Italian Job (1969) alongside his friend Michael Caine,[1] whose wife, fellow Guyanese actor Shakira Baksh, Baird had appeared alongside in UFO.