Under contract to Universal Pictures at age 18, his first television job was one line – “leave my mother alone” – spoken to star Jack Klugman on the television series Quincy M.E. He recurred in several episodes, each time as a different character and also made numerous appearances in Battlestar Galactica and later Buck Rogers in the 25th Century which also featured his father Wilfrid. The only time both father and son appeared on screen together was on The Merv Griffin Show in 1980. A clip from that show is featured in his film Three Days of Hamlet.

In 1994 he played the Marvel Comics superhero Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mister Fantastic, in a motion picture adaptation of Marvel’s flagship comics series The Fantastic Four. The film was low budget and made by certain parties in order to retain the film rights to the property; thus, it was never released. But bootleg copies of the film made the rounds, and the film has acquired its own following. Hyde-White is regarded by many comics fans as the best embodiment of the character, who has since been played by Ioan Gruffudd and Miles Teller.