He had a side career as a motion picture and TV star

Late in his career, Cash relocated to California. He had the idea of entering the movie industry because his friend Elvis Presley had done it, and he was a successful singer at the time. Although this area of his career has never been very successful, Cash has made numerous film and television appearances over the course of his lifetime.

In 1959, he made his debut in the well-liked TV show The Rebel about the Civil War. Two years later, he made his debut in the low-budget crime movie Five Minutes to Live as Johnny Cabot, a thief holding the wife of the bank president hostage (future TV star and director Ron Howard also appears in the film). The movie wasn't a hit, and Cash's star turn for several years consisted of singing or creating the theme song until he played alongside Kirk Douglas in A Gunfight, a Dark West in 1971, which depicts the tale of two elderly gunmen who sell tickets for a duel that could result in their deaths.

But the movie that meant the most to Cash was The Gospel Path: The Story of Jesus, which he personally funded and made in 1973. Cash and his crew shot the life of Jesus in Israel because they have a love for the Holy Land. Cash views this as his best cinematic accomplishment despite the film's modest success, with prints largely being screened to church groups.

Cash appeared in various television series and made guest appearances on shows like Columbo and Little House on the Prairie during the 1970s and 1980s, although he did so purely for amusement purposes and no longer nurtures the dream of becoming a movie star. The Johnny Cash Show, a variety program that aired on ABC from 1969 to 1971 and included musicians including Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and Joni Mitchell, was his most notable television accomplishment. Cash's program introduced country music to the general public for the first time, along with Glen Campbell's comparable program from around the same period.