Leatherneck Who Made Movie with “The Duke” Builds John Wayne Museum

“I grew up in Dundalk, I was a St. Helena’s boy,” says 78-year-old commercial real estate agent Bill Atkins. “I lived on the city side and went Patterson High before I  left for the Army.”

A St. Helena’s boy—well, teenager, who made a movie with “the Duke.”

William Roland Atkins, known as "the Deacon," left high school at 16, and with his buddy Sonny Kline, entered the Army. Then at 18, Atkins joined the U.S. Marine Corps.

A year later, as luck would have it, he found himself on an RKO Studios shoot with John Wayne. Yup, the Duke. He wasn’t the only Dundalk Marine in the Flying Leathernecks, either.

Joe Kolarik and Joseph Panchision, members of the same unit, were there, too.

“Make sure you mention those two,” Atkins says to a Patch reporter visiting his office in Bowie, also home to the John Wayne Museum.

In California, the movie studio transformed Camp Pendleton into 1942 Guadalcanal, bringing in Japanese tanks and palm trees. Atkins, who served with the 11th Engineer Battalion, known as “Baltimore’s Own,” caught a role as one of the “mud” Marines, the guys climbing around on all fours in the action scenes.

Wayne played Major Daniel Kirby, taking over command of a squadron of Marine pilots just before readying themselves for combat. Wayne’s co-star was Robert Ryan, portraying Capt. Carl “Griff” Griffin.”

Atkins said he was in charge of the Marine detail—the filming took about four weeks—and that the Duke regularly shunned the big-time generals who’d occasionally stop by and instead dine with the grunts.

“He’d come in and eat with, not the big wigs,” Atkins said. “Greatest guy in the world. You think of movie stairs, and you think of trailers and special treatment, but he was hanging out with us, playing football, completely down to earth. That’s why, that’s the reason, I have the John Wayne Museum.”

Museum might be a bit of a strong word to describe Atkins’ office celebration of the legendary actor, but it’s certainly a sincere effort to honor Wayne. And Atkins is more than happy to share his story of making the film with an American icon with anyone who stops by. The walls of the two-room office are filled with photos of Wayne, including a couple of pictures of Atkins and Wayne together, many movie posters and stills, and action figures and memorabilia from Flying Leathernecks, as well as the rest of the Duke’s abundant film career.

Wayne passed away in 1979.

Atkins said after his wife of 54 years, Rita, passed a year and a half ago, he began donating more time to his collection, adding items from eBay and elsewhere. A major coup came several years ago when he got a local liquor store owner to turn over a life-size cutout of Wayne.

Atkins said it was a chance meeting with a John Wayne impersonator that finally convinced him that the collection needed a public space.

His office and the museum sits on Race Travel Road off Route 450 in the Hilltop Plaza Shopping Center. It’s a little hard to find behind the 7-11, but there’s a big sign in the window once you get close.

Atkins said he saw the Coen brother’s Academy Award, Best Picture-nominated True Grit earlier this year—the remake of the film that earned Wayne his only Oscar—describing it as just “okay.”

“It was fine, just didn’t add anything to the story,” Atkins says. “It’s like remaking Gone With The Wind. Why bother?”

For a kid who grew up setting duckpins on Dundalk Avenue, playing in the Dundalk drum and bugle corps as a 13-14-year-old, and taking the No. 26 street car—known as the “Red Rocket” to high school—meeting the Duke proved an unforgettable experience as a 19-year-old.

“He was 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, a 42-year-old man, and what you didn’t realize was that he had all this magnetism off the screen when you met him in person,” Atkins says. “He had what J.F.K. had or someone else like that. He had that kind of an effect, when he walked into the room, on everyone.”