[citation needed] Hyde's interest in law took him to university to study the subject but his passion for performing and the theatre led him to pursue a career in acting.

Leaving for London in 1969,[2] he was awarded a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and won the Bancroft Gold Medal for excellence in his graduating year of 1972.

Hyde played J. Bruce Ismay, the arrogant managing director of the White Star Line in Titanic, Egyptologist Allen Chamberlain in The Mummy, and Sam Parrish/Van Pelt, the hunter in Jumanji.

He has been in numerous films including The Contract, The Curse of King Tut's Tomb, Land of the Blind, The Tailor of Panama, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, Eisenstein and Anaconda.

He has also appeared in several television mysteries, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett in which Hyde played Culverton Smith and Midsomer Murders as Frank Smythe-Webster.