James Edward Grant started as a newspaperman in Chicago in the 1920s. He moved to Hollywood to write under contract with Republic. His passions were bullfighting and writing. He spent the last years of his life in Spain.lose friend of and frequent film collaborator with John Wayne. When John Wayne insisted that Grant be brought in to rewrite the script to Circus World (1964), director Frank Capra, who wanted to use his own script, quit the film. A notoriously heavy drinker for many years, he eventually became a prominent figure in the Los Angeles branch of Alcoholics Anonymous. Grant's wife, Josephine Foy Grant, died in 1987.