He is best remembered for his performances as the Devil (also referred to as Scratch or Legba) in Crossroads and as Toledo the piano player in the original production of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
Judd's TV work included Saturday Night Live, soap operas such as As the World Turns and The Guiding Light, and the 1980 PBS series Gettin' to Know Me, which revolved around an African-American family.
[3] Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, starring Charles S. Dutton, had its first staged reading in 1982 at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut.
"[1] After Wilson and director Lloyd Richards worked together for almost two years on the play, Ma Rainey opened at the Yale Repertory Theater in April 1984.
Frank Rich, then theater critic for The New York Times, wrote, "As acted by Mr. Judd, Joe Seneca and Leonard Jackson, the monologues have the beauty and poignance of the old-time solos that the musicians improvise on their instruments.
[2] Judd's obituary noted that he had worked as a counselor for several years for his favorite charity, Teens with Drug Problems, as well as a non-profit social services organization in Queens called Elmcor.
[2] When Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was revived on Broadway in 2003, the production was dedicated to the memory of Theresa Merritt, Joe Seneca, and Robert Judd.