Bob Dylan had a brief “born again Christian” phase and I believe he recorded at least one album of Christian music while disavowing his earlier “secular” songs. It didn’t last.
You’re probably confused because Hill’s character in Mission Impossible, the series, was Dan Briggs. Phelps took over as head of the IMF for reasons unexplained on-air.
Another sports-related example is the athletes portrayed in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. I think the movie is perhaps best remembered today for the theme music by Vangelis, but it’s about two real-life British runners at the 1924 Olympics. One was Christian and wouldn’t compete on Sundays and the other was Jewish and wouldn’t compete on the Jewish Sabbath.
Ed Correa was a major league baseball player who, as a Seventh Day Adventist, wouldn’t play on Friday nights or Saturdays. The team was able to work around it.
I found this brief article (warning: autoplay video) about how Lisa Whelchel (Blair from “Facts of Life”) “walked away from the role Of Rachel on ‘Friends’”; but it appears that this doesn’t meet the OP’s requirement of “has lost booked (as opposed to speculative future) work as a result of religious belief running into secular constraints.”
Actually, there was an episode very late in the run of the “Facts of Life” series in which one of the girls loses their virginity. (Keep in mind this was when the ‘girls’ were graduated from college and working adults, not during the prep school years when they were teenagers.) Originally it was supposed to be Blair, but Welchel steadfastly refused. The storyline was rewritten so that Natalie (who had a fairly steady b.f. at the time) was the one. Welchel still refused to be part of the episode because she was adamantly against the idea of sex before marriage.
Two members of Megadeth, specifically the two Davids, have become professing Christians in recent years. They still play all their old classic songs, profanity included if it had it, but they will not tour with openly satanic bands. They have encountered these on the festival circuit, where they may be two of many artists on the bill, and are OK with that.
David Ellefson has, in recent years, enrolled in a Lutheran seminary.
Similarly, Little Richard found religion while touring Australia in '57 and switched to playing gospel. He switched back during a tour of Europe five years later.
I don’t know if her faith dictated the role, or she just lucked into it, but Mayim Bialik plays Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler without showing any cleavage or (for the most part) legs. She’s successful in show business while adhering to her faith of modern orthodox Judaism (I hope I got that right).
According to the hosts of the (excellent) podcast “Denzel Washington is the Greatest Actor of All Time, Period,” Denzel turns down roles - or asks them to be rewritten - if they conflict with his Christian faith. Training Day is a notable example: Washington wanted the bad guy to meet his deserved end on-screen.
And, acting as my inner casting director for a sitcom, there is little to direct me away from NOT pairing an orthodox
Jew with the most goyische guy on TV.
because Hill’s character in Mission Impossible, the series, was Dan Briggs. Phelps took over as head of the IMF for reasons unexplained on-air.
