Rosalind Cash (December 31, 1938 – October 31, 1995) was an American singer and actress. Her best known film role is as Charlton Heston’s character’s love interest Lisa, in the 1971 science fiction film, The Omega Man. To soap opera audiences, she is best remembered as Mary Mae Ward on General Hospital from 1994 to 1995.
Cash was the second of four children. Her siblings were John (1936–1998), Robert, and Helen. All were born and raised in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Her older brother, Col. John A. Cash, enjoyed a long illustrious career with the United States Army, serving in the Defense Intelligence Agency.[citation needed] He died in 1998 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Cash graduated with honours from Atlantic City High School in 1956. She attended City College of New York. Her career extended to theater, television, film and recording.
Cash appeared in the 1962 revival of Fiorello! and was an original member of the Negro Ensemble Company, founded in 1968. In 1973, she played the role of Goneril in King Lear at the New York Shakespeare Festival alongside James Earl Jones’s Lear.
Cash appeared on the New York area television show Callback! which featured musical director Barry Manilow. The episode Cash was featured on was filmed on Monday evening March 31, 1969 at the Village Gate in New York City. The episode aired on Saturday, April 19, 1969 at 3:30 p. m. on CBS. Cash performed “God Bless The Child” on the show, but sadly no recordings have yet to turn up. Her other television credits include The Cosby Show, What’s Happening!!, A Different World, Good Times, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Kojak, Barney Miller, Benson, Police Woman, Family Ties, Head of the Class, and many others. Cash was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on the Public Broadcasting Service production of Go Tell it on the Mountain. She had an amusing cameo on The Golden Girls, playing Dorothy’s future daughter-in-law. In 1996, she was posthumously nominated for an Emmy Award, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, for her role on General Hospital. Also, she was Nonnie Sweet in the episode of L.A. Law titled “Auld L’Anxiety.”
Cash’s films included Klute (1971), The New Centurions (1972) with George C. Scott, Uptown Saturday Night (1974) with Sidney Poitier, and Wrong Is Right (1982). In 1995, she appeared in Tales from the Hood, her last film appearance.
Cash supplied the voices of Sesame Street Muppet Roosevelt Franklin’s mother and sister, Mary Frances, on the 1970 record album The Year of Roosevelt Franklin, Gordon’s Friend from Sesame Street alongside Matt Robinson’s voiceovers for Roosevelt and his brother, Baby Ray, and friend, A.B. Cito.
Cash died of cancer on October 31, 1995 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.