On his way to turn himself into police over sexual assault charges, Harvey Weinstein was filmed carrying three sizeable books, two of which have been identified as Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution by Todd S Purdum, and Elia Kazan: A Biography by Richard Schickel.

Something Wonderful was published last month to some acclaim, and it is easy to imagine Weinstein might see something of himself in the story of successful showmen impresarios credited with changing the cultural landscape.

But it is the second of these that has caused a considerable stir. Kazan was the Greek-American director of groundbreaking, award-winning classics such as On the Waterfront and A Streetcar named Desire, and a pioneer of socially engaged, “method acting” drama in Hollywood. Born in what was then known as Constantinople and briefly a member of the Communist party in the mid-1930s, Kazan established himself in the left-leaning Group Theatre, directing the premiere production of Arthur Miller’s celebrated Death of a Salesman in 1949. Kazan testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee (Huac) in 1952, at the height of the Hollywood blacklist, and named a number of industry figures – including playwright Clifford Odets and actor Morris Carnovsky – as communists, and effectively helping to end their careers.

Weinstein will no doubt see parallels with his own situations, as Kazan was scorned by much of liberal Hollywood as a result of his testimony. The subject matter of One the Waterfront, in which Marlon Brando’s dock-worker chooses to testify against brutal, conformity-enforcing unions, is often seen as Kazan’s justification of his actions in front of Huac. When Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1999, with an introduction by fellow director Martin Scorsese, dozens of audience members chose not to applaud and 250 demonstrators picketed the event.

Schickel’s 2005 biography also documents Kazan’s extensive womanising. Three times married, he also had affairs with female actors and leading ladies including Marilyn Monroe. British actor Carol Drinkwater alleged Kazan sexually assaulted her during an audition for the 1973 adaptation of the F Scott Fitzgerald novel The Last Tycoon, when she was in her 20s and he was in his 60s. “He came in, threw me back on the sofa and started pulling at my clothes, forcibly trying to have sex with me,” she wrote.

Kazan’s reputation as a formidable Hollywood artist weathered political and personal scandals. After his Huac testimony, he won a best director Oscar for On the Waterfront and a best dramatic film award at Cannes for East of Eden, both in 1955, and went on to make a string of acclaimed films, including the Oscar-nominated Splendor in the Grass in 1961 and America America in 1963.