Dr Gilchrist

In the novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, Dr Maurice Gilchrist is Marina Gregg's personal physician, who lives at Gossington Hall. At the time of the events of the novel, he had looked after Marina for many years.

Dr Gilchrist is described as a "blunt, hearty, matter-of-fact man", with a "thatch of brown hair and observant, keen dark eyes".

After the death of Heather Badcock, Dr Gilchrist explains to Inspector Craddock that he cannot see Marina, because if he were to ask her questions, she would be "in a state bordering on hysteria within ten minutes".

Dr Gilchrist tells Craddock that the motion picture life is a life of continuous strain, and of always being in the public eye, and never being able to relax. He also says that people who adopt this career, and who are good at it, are plagued with diffidence, and a terrible feeling that they cannot do what is required of them, and so they need a lot of reassurance. He says that this makes them nervy, and the worse their nerves are, the better they are at their job. He says this to help Craddock understand Marina.

Dr Gilchrist reveals to Craddock that he had given Marina a sedative after Heather's death. Just bbefore she went unconscious, she told him that the poison was meant for her. He also says that he is sure she did not tell her husband.

Portrayals
In the 1992 BBC adaptation, the character of Dr Gilchrist is played by Norman Rodway. Here he is portrayed as a heavy drinker. He took to drinking after examining the dead body of Heather Badcock, for example, because he couldn't stand the sight of dead bodies. He perceives his role at Gossington Hall as essentially useless. He thinks he is usually in the way and serves at best as a "reluctant tennis player" when Marina's usual partner Jason Rudd is too busy. However he does give Miss Marple some valuable insights into Marina's state of mind. He describes her as "a manic depressive" and has her "famous temperament" comprising "rapturοus despair", "despairing rapture" and ""everything in between". He also saw some parallel between Marina and the role she was acting in "Elizabeth of Austria". Elizabeth married the Emperor Franz Josef and then later her son, Crοwn Prince Rudοlf shot himself. When Miss Marple observed during a film shoot that Marina seemed to be able to physically turn pale for a scene, Gilchrist said that Marina tοld him that she used "an emοtiοnal memοry", a parallel crisis frοm her οwn life to trigger the appropriate stage respοnse. In the case of a tragic scene, she could have used the mοment when she learnt that her baby's cοnditiοn was irreversible. He also told Miss Marple that Marina's child was probably locked up in some clinic in Santa Barbara and that she never mentioned much less visited the child.

In Le miroir se brisa, the French TV film adaptation of the novel by France Télévisions, the parallel character is Dr Jacques Mentchikoff.