Harvey Weinstein, an Oscar-winning movie producer, was fired from The Weinstein Company on Sunday following an expose that detailed decades of sexual harassment allegations in Hollywood.
In a statement, the company’s board of directors announced his firing, capping the swift downfall of one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers and expelling him from the company he co-created with his brother.
But who exactly is Weinstein and which Hollywood movies was he behind?
WATCH: Sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein spanned three decades, but it took only three days to topple the high-profile film producer from the company he co-created.
Weinstein’s rise to fame
Weinstein, 65, began making films with his brother Bob in the 1970s. The two formed the independent studio Miramax Films Corporation in 1979. Miramax was named after their parents Miriam and Max, according to Britannica.com.
Walt Disney Company acquired Miramax in 1993 for an estimated US$60 million but the brothers continued running the company as co-chairmen. Weinstein and Bob then left the company in 2005 and founded The Weinstein Company.
Not only was Weinstein heavily involved in Hollywood, he was also a political contributor, giving more than $1.4 million to the U.S. Democratic Party over the years, according to the New York Times.
He hosted a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Malia Obama, daughter of former president Barack Obama, interned with his company this past summer.
WATCH: Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations
What movies did he help produce?
His name has been attached to some of the most famous movies from the past few decades (many of them Acadamy Award winners). These include:
- My Left Foot (1989)
- Pulp Fiction (1994)
- Scream (1996)
- The English Patient (1996)
- Good Will Hunting (1997)
- Shakespeare in Love (1998)
- Chicago (2002)
- Inglorious Basterds (2009)
- The King’s Speech (2010)
- Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
- Lion (2016)
Sexual harassment allegations
On Oct. 5, the New York Times released a report about Weinstein’s alleged history of sexual harassment. According to the Times, he made unwelcome advances on numerous women, including actress Ashley Judd, quietly reaching settlements with at least eight of them.
Judd claimed that nearly 20 years ago, when she was filming Kiss the Girls, Weinstein had her up to his hotel room, where he asked if he could give her a massage, and for her to watch him shower.
“How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?” she recalled in an interview with the Times.
Weinstein and his lawyers at first denied the allegations. His then-lawyer Lisa Bloom was quoted in the report saying he denied many of the accusations “as patently false.”
But two days later, Bloom resigned as Weinstein’s lawyer.
Days after the Times article, Weinstein was fired from the company which he had co-founded. He was asked to take an indefinite leave while the company conducted an investigation into the claims.
“The directors of The Weinstein Company — Robert Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar — have determined, and have informed Harvey Weinstein, that his employment with The Weinstein Company is terminated, effective immediately,” the board said.
WATCH: After the allegation, Weinstein filed a lawsuit against the New York Times
In a statement to the Times on Thursday afternoon, Mr. Weinstein said: “I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go.”
He added that he was working with therapists and planning to take a leave of absence to “deal with this issue head-on.”
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