George Forrest (July 31, 1915 – October 10, 1999) was a writer of music and lyrics for musical theatre best known for the show Kismet, adapted from the works of Alexander Borodin.
Born George Forrest Chichester, Jr., he was also known professionally at times as Chet Forrest. Throughout his career he worked exclusively with the composer-lyricist Robert Wright. The pair had an affinity for adapting classical music themes and adding lyrics to these themes for Hollywood and the Broadway musical stage. Wright said that the music was usually a 50-50 "collaboration" between Wright & Forrest and the composer. While both men were credited equally as composer-lyricists, it was Mr. Forrest who worked with the music.
Kismet was one of several works Forrest created with Wright that was commissioned by impresario Edwin Lester for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera (LACLO). Song of Norway, Gypsy Lady, Magdalena, and their adaptation of The Great Waltz were also commissioned by Lester for the LACLO. The LACLO then exported most of these productions to Broadway. Forrest and Wright won a Tony Award for their work on Kismet and in 1995 they were awarded the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award.
George Forrest may refer to:
George Frank Forrest (born ca. 1870, Oregon) was an Alaskan politician and the only mayor of Juneau, Alaska to have served non-consecutively three times:
His son, George F. Forrest, Jr. (born on December 12, 1898), served in World War I.
George Arthur Forrest (born 1940) is a Belgian entrepreneur, owner of the Forrest Group (Groupe Forrest), a group of companies founded in the Belgian Congo in 1922 and active in wind power and hydroelectric energy, construction, mines and metallurgy, biological food and aviation. He has been described as a philanthropic employer.
George Arthur Forrest was born in 1940 in Lubumbashi in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He was the son of an Irish immigrant. His father, Malta Forrest, had founded l'Entreprise Générale Malta Forrest (EGMF) in 1922 in Katanga Province in the south of the Belgian Congo. The company started as a transport company, then moved into mining and then into civil engineering. In 1968 it became a limited liability company, with George Forrest and his adoptive brother Victor Eskenazi-Forrest as Managing Directors. In 1986, after his brother died, George Forrest took full control. He created the George Forrest International Group in 1995.