Gest was born Moses Gershonovitch on March 15, 1875 in Koshedary, near Vilna, Russia. He was one of at least three sons and five children of Leon and Louisa (Miklishansky) Gershonovitch. Too intractable, perhaps, to get along with his father, a Talmudic scholar who manufactured soap and perfume, Morris was shipped off, at the age of twelve, to an uncle in Boston.
Gest had some public schooling, but later credited his education chiefly to the Boston Public Library.
As a boy Gest worked in his uncle's shop, sold newspapers, shined shoes, posted bills, and finally got a job in the library of the federal courthouse. Stagestruck from the first time that he saw bright lights, Gest did not keep his courthouse job for long. He swept the stages of Boston theaters, appeared as a "wild man" in a local sideshow, working with a carnival in Maine, and managed properties for a troupe of Yiddish performers. In 1902 he ventured to New York City, where he was soon doing odd jobs for the producer Oscar Hammerstein. Recognizing the young man's enterprise, Hammerstein sent him to Europe to engage foreign acts for the Victoria Theater. The European contacts he made at this time were to prove profitable in later years. In 1905 Gest entered into partnership with F. Ray Comstock to form a theatrical producing firm that lasted for twenty-three years. Financial success did not come quickly, however, and only their operation of the candy concession at the Hippodrome Theater kept them going until their first hit - George V. Hobart's play Experience (1914). Thereafter the partners pursued diverse interests. While Comstock presented intimate musical comedies at the Princess Theater, frequently with music by Jerome Kern, Gest indulged his passion for color and size by staging lavish spectacles, first at the Manhattan Opera House, which he operated from 1914 to 1920, and then at the huge, unwieldy Century Theater, which he took over, at the invitation of the financier Otto H. Kahn, in 1917. Among his productions at the first theater were The Wanderer (1917), a biblical pageant, and Chu Chin Chow (1917), a musical tale of the Orient. At the Century Theater, his Aphrodite (1919) and Mecca (1920) were perhaps the largest and most elaborate presentations seen in New York up to that time. Though not highly profitable, they toured successfully. But spectacle was not enough to satisfy Gest, who had acquired a taste for art as well as glitter. He had apparently had a hand in bringing the Ballet Russe to America in 1910, and in 1919 he persuaded the great Russian ballet master Michel Fokine to come to the United States to stage the dancing scenes in Aphrodite. In succeeding years Gest imported other equally distinguished foreign artists. In 1922 he brought the Chauve-Souris revue of Nikita Baliev. The next year he sponsored the first American engagement of the Moscow Art Theater of Konstantin Stanislavski. The group performed from 1923 through 1925 in a repertory of thirteen plays and provided America with a firsthand view of true ensemble acting by a great company. Several of its leading actors remained in the United States and became influential teachers of what was eventually to be termed the "Stanislavski System, " profoundly influencing American acting technique. Gest also arranged the final American tour (1923-1924) of the great Italian tragedienne Eleonora Duse. One of his largest, most costly, and most noted productions was The Miracle (1924), a religious pantomime staged by the German director Max Reinhardt with a cast of 600. Gest later presented it profitably on tour. Morris Gest ended his partnership with Comstock in 1928 and became an independent producer. In 1929 he brought from Germany the Freiburg Passion Play, but lost heavily on the engagement and the next year filed for bankruptcy. None of his productions of the 1930's, including The Wonder Bar (1931), an experimental musical starring Al Jolson, and a Chinese drama, Lady Precious Stream (1936) - his last Broadway production - equaled his earlier successes. Gest produced several motion pictures, including Hearts of the World (1915), directed by D. W. Griffith, and The Thief of Bagdad (1924), starring Douglas Fairbanks. He ended his career on a note of showmanship with a midget village at the New York World's Fair of 1939. Three years later Gest entered the Midtown Hospital in New York City with pneumonia and died there of a heart attack at the age of sixty-one. He was buried in the Belasco family mausoleum in Linden Hill Cemetery, Maspeth, in Queens.
Morris Gest ended his partnership with Comstock in 1928 and became an independent producer.
Gest dressed in a distinctive flowing Windsor tie and black artist's hat that were long familiar on Broadway. Always a showman, he nevertheless displayed a discriminating theatrical taste and an eagerness to promote the finest foreign talent, often with a surprising disregard for monetary success.
Gest married Reina Victoria Belasco on June 1, 1909. He and his wife had no children.
