George Randolph Chester

George Randolph Chester (January 27, 1869 – February 26, 1924) was an American writer and screenwriter, film editor, and director. Chester was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 27, 1869. He was the author of such popular works such as Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford and Five Thousand an Hour: How Johnny Gamble Won the Heiress that were made into silent films within his lifetime. His success in selling stories to The Saturday Evening Post and leaving his position with the Cincinnati Enquirer and moving to New York City to write fiction was the impetus for James Bearsley Hendryx to buy a typewriter and try his hand at writing fiction. Chester's first wife, Elizabeth Chester (whom he had married in Davenport, Iowa in July, 1895), divorced George in 1911, using the evidence that he was living at Gainsborough Studios in London with Lillian Josephine Chester. Elizabeth filed for divorce, and George and Lillian married while they were in Europe after hearing that the divorce was finalized. However, Elizabeth had only been granted an interlocutory decree, which made the divorce not final and therefore made his subsequent marriage to Lillian controversial. George and Lillian worked on several stories and plays together. George and Lillian only directed one film together, The Son of Wallingford (1921), which has been lost.

Chester died on February 26, 1924, of a heart attack in his New York City home.