James Edward Grant
Encyclopedia
James Edward Grant was an American
short story
writer and screenwriter
who contributed to more than fifty films between 1935 and 1971.
Born in Chicago
, Grant began his career in the mid-1930s developing stories or writing scripts for mostly B movie
s. He collaborated with John Wayne
on twelve projects, starting with Angel and the Badman
(which he also directed) in 1947 through Circus World
in 1964. Support Your Local Gunfighter was released in 1971, five years after his death.
Grant won the Bronze Wrangler
, an annual award presented by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
, twice, for The Alamo
in 1961 and The Comancheros
the following year. He and William Bowers
were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Sheepman
in 1959.
Grant wrote numerous short stories that were published in Argosy
, The Saturday Evening Post
, Cosmopolitan
, and Liberty
, among others.
Grant died from cancer
in Burbank, California
. He owned a cattle ranch in Winton
in Merced County
from the 1940s until his death.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
writer and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
who contributed to more than fifty films between 1935 and 1971.
Born in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Grant began his career in the mid-1930s developing stories or writing scripts for mostly B movie
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
s. He collaborated with John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
on twelve projects, starting with Angel and the Badman
Angel and the Badman
Angel and the Badman is a 1947 black-and-white Western film, starring John Wayne, Gail Russell, Harry Carey and Bruce Cabot which examines the ability of a gunman to renounce violence. This film, which was the first one Wayne produced as well as starred in, was a departure for this genre at the...
(which he also directed) in 1947 through Circus World
Circus World (film)
Circus World, also known as Samuel Bronston's Circus World, is a 1964 drama film made by the independent production company Samuel Bronston Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures...
in 1964. Support Your Local Gunfighter was released in 1971, five years after his death.
Grant won the Bronze Wrangler
Bronze Wrangler
The Bronze Wrangler is an award presented annually by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum to honor the top works in Western music, film, television and literature.The awards were first presented in 1961...
, an annual award presented by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with more than 28,000 Western and American Indian art works and artifacts. The facility also has the world's most extensive collection of American rodeo, photographs, barbed wire, saddlery, and early rodeo trophies...
, twice, for The Alamo
The Alamo (1960 film)
The Alamo is a 1960 American historical epic released by United Artists. The film was directed by John Wayne, who also starred as Davy Crockett. The cast also includes Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie and Laurence Harvey as William B...
in 1961 and The Comancheros
The Comancheros
The Comancheros is a 1961 western Deluxe CinemaScope color film directed by Michael Curtiz and John Wayne based on a 1952 novel by Paul Wellman starring John Wayne and Stuart Whitman. When health troubles prevented Curtiz from finishing the film, Wayne directed the remainder of the movie, though...
the following year. He and William Bowers
William Bowers
William Bowers was a reporter in Long Beach, California before becoming a screenwriter and specializing in writing comedy westerns and also turned out several thrillers. His first credited screenplay was My Favorite Spy in 1942.During World War II Bowers served in the United States Army Air Forces...
were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Sheepman
The Sheepman
The Sheepman is a tongue-in-cheek 1958 Western film directed by George Marshall and starring Glenn Ford, Shirley MacLaine and Leslie Nielsen.-Plot:...
in 1959.
Grant wrote numerous short stories that were published in Argosy
Argosy (magazine)
Argosy was an American pulp magazine, published by Frank Munsey. It is generally considered to be the first American pulp magazine. The magazine began as a general information periodical entitled The Golden Argosy, targeted at the boys adventure market.-Launch of Argosy:In late September 1882,...
, The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
, Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan (magazine)
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...
, and Liberty
Liberty (magazine)
Liberty magazine may refer to:* Liberty , a political magazine published from 1881 to 1908 by Benjamin Tucker* Liberty , a general-interest magazine published from 1924 to 1950...
, among others.
Grant died from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
. He owned a cattle ranch in Winton
Winton, California
Winton is a census-designated place in Merced County, California, United States. Winton is located north of Atwater, at an elevation of 177 feet...
in Merced County
Merced County, California
Merced County , is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, north of Fresno and southeast of San Jose. As of the 2010 census, the population was 255,793, up from 210,554 at the 2000 census. The county seat is Merced...
from the 1940s until his death.
Additional filmography
- Big Brown EyesBig Brown EyesBig Brown Eyes is a 1936 crime/detective film. In the film, police officer Danny Barr is chasing jewel robbers. His girlfriend Eve Fallon is initially working as a manicurist, but quickly takes a job as a reporter assisting in the effort against the jewel thieves...
(1936) - Great GuyGreat GuyGreat Guy is a crime film starring James Cagney and Mae Clarke. An honest inspector for the New York Department of Weights and Measures takes on corrupt merchants and politicians.-Cast:*James Cagney as Johnny Cave*Mae Clarke as Janet Henry...
(1936) - Danger - Love at WorkDanger - Love at WorkDanger - Love at Work is a 1937 American screwball comedy film directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by James Edward Grant and Ben Markson focuses on an attorney's frustrating efforts to deal with a wildly eccentric family.-Plot:...
(1937) - Miracles for SaleMiracles for SaleMiracles for Sale is a 1939 mystery film directed by Tod Browning and starring Robert Young and Florence Rice. It was Browning's final film as a director. The film is based on a locked-room mystery novel by well-known mystery writer Clayton Rawson, Death from a Top Hat, which was the first to...
(1939) - Boom TownBoom Town (film)Boom Town is a 1940 adventure drama Hollywood film starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, and Frank Morgan. A story written by James Edward Grant in Cosmopolitan magazine titled "A Lady Comes to Burkburnett" provided the inspiration for the film.-Plot:"Big John"...
(1940) - Johnny EagerJohnny EagerJohnny Eager is a 1941 film noir starring Robert Taylor and Lana Turner. Van Heflin won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.The film is featured in the comedy spoof Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid .-Plot:...
(1942) - Incendiary BlondeIncendiary BlondeIncendiary Blonde is a 1945 American musical drama film of 1920s nightclub star Texas Guinan. Filmed in Technicolor by director George Marshall, it starred actress Betty Hutton in the title role. The music was written by Robert Emmett Dolan...
(1945) - Sands of Iwo JimaSands of Iwo JimaSands of Iwo Jima is a 1949 war film that follows a group of United States Marines from training to the Battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. It stars John Wayne, John Agar, Adele Mara and Forrest Tucker. The movie was written by Harry Brown and James Edward Grant and directed by Allan Dwan...
(1949) - The Bullfighter and the LadyThe Bullfighter and the LadyBullfighter and the Lady is a 1951 drama film directed and written by Budd Boetticher. Filmed on location in Mexico, the film focused on the realities of the dangerous sport of bullfighting. During production, one stunt man died...
(1951) - Flying LeathernecksFlying LeathernecksFlying Leathernecks is a 1951 action film directed by Nicholas Ray, produced by Edmund Grainger, and starring John Wayne and Robert Ryan. The movie details the exploits and personal battles of United States Marine Corps aviators during World War II...
(1951) - Big Jim McLainBig Jim McLainBig Jim McLain is a 1952 political thriller film starring John Wayne and James Arness as HUAC investigators hunting down communists in the post-war Hawaii organized labor scene. Edward Ludwig directed....
(1952) - HondoHondo (film)Hondo is a movie that was made in 1953 by 3-D Warnercolor western film starring John Wayne, directed by John Farrow. The screenplay is based on the 1952 short story "The Gift of Cochise" by Louis L'Amour...
(1953) - The Last Wagon (1956)
- Three Violent PeopleThree Violent PeopleThree Violent People is a 1957 American western movie starring Charlton Heston and Anne Baxter.-Plot:Confederate soldier Capt. Colt Saunders comes home to Texas from the war...
(1956) - The Proud RebelThe Proud RebelThe Proud Rebel is a 1958 American film directed by Michael Curtiz with a screenplay by Lillie Hayward that is based on a story by James Edward Grant. The movie is about a former confederate soldier who is falsely accused of starting a brawl in a small town. A local woman comes to his aid, but she...
(1958) - Donovan's ReefDonovan's ReefDonovan's Reef is a 1963 American film starring John Wayne. It was directed John Ford and filmed on location on Kauai, Hawaii.The cast included Elizabeth Allen, Lee Marvin, Dorothy Lamour, and Cesar Romero. The film marked the last time Ford and Wayne ever worked together on a...
(19631963 in filmThe year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....
) - McLintock!McLintock!McLintock! is a 1963 comedy Western starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, and loosely based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The film is notable, perhaps even infamous, for its two spanking scenes, in which mother and daughter are each paddled with coal shovels: the daughter by her...
(1963)