Charles Haid

Charles Maurice Haid III was born on June 2, 1943, in San Francisco, California, to Grace Marian (née Folger) and Charles Maurice Haid Jr. His family heritage is Dutch, with the original surname Van Heidt, and Irish. Haid attended Palo Alto High School before enrolling at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now known as Carnegie Mellon University, where he crossed paths with future television producer Steven Bochco.

Haid's early career included work in theater production, and in 1971 he served as associate producer on the original stage production of Godspell, which was developed at Carnegie Mellon University. The following year, he appeared on Broadway in Elizabeth I, marking his 1972 credit on the New York stage.

On television, Haid built a substantial acting career across several decades. In the 1970s he portrayed Sgt. Paul Schonski on the series Delvecchio. He became widely recognized for his role as Officer Andy Renko on the 1980s NBC drama Hill Street Blues. In 2004 and 2005, he appeared in the sixth season of Third Watch, playing C.T. Finney, a corrupt New York police captain.

His film work includes the 1980 feature Altered States, in which he played Dr. Mason Parrish, and the 1984 United Artists film The House of God, where he was cast as Fats, a physician character set among medical interns. In 1988, he starred alongside Stephen Collins in the television film Weekend War.

Haid also contributed voice performances to animation. He voiced the main character Montgomery Moose in the pilot episode of The Get Along Gang, produced by Nelvana, though Sparky Marcus replaced him for the subsequent series. In 2004, he provided the voice of the one-legged rabbit Lucky Jack in the Disney animated film Home on the Range.

As a director, Haid earned a Directors Guild Award for an episode of ER and received nominations for his direction of the television film Buffalo Soldiers and an episode of NYPD Blue. He served as a regular director on the FX series Nip/Tuck and also directed episodes of Sons of Anarchy and AMC's Breaking Bad. For the CBS series Criminal Minds, Haid functioned both as a regular director and as an on-screen performer, portraying serial killer Randall Garner, known as The Fisher King.