Douglas Gold

In the short story Triangle at Rhodes, Douglas Cameron Gold was the husband of Marjorie and a guest at the resort hotel in Rhodes where Poirot was hoping to have a quiet holiday. Early on, he became attracted to a fellow guest, Valentine Chantry, the wife of Tony Chantry. Later Valentine was poisoned after drinking a pink gin. Douglas had fetched the drink from the bar, and the drink was meant for Tony but he had offered it to his wife. Because of this, Tony accused Douglas of trying to poison him but ended up poisoning Valentine. A bottle of strophanthin was later found in Douglas' pockets. Poirot had however seen Chantry plant the bottle so was able to secure his release.

Portrayals
Douglas Gold was played by Peter Settelen in the film adaptation of the story in episode 6 of Series 1 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot drama series. One plot element in the film which was not in the original was the fact that Douglas was a devout catholic. Poirot saw him cross himself at the Greek church at the Monolithos Castle. From this, Poirot knew that Marjorie Gold could not be telling the truth when she was talking about her distress that Douglas planned to divorce her. She must have been stage managing and misdirecting. Poirot had to do much more in this adaptation to secure Douglas' release. He did not see Chantry plant a bottle of poison. Here, he and Pamela Lyall discover that it is Marjorie Gold who bought some poison from the old town of Rhodes. There then follows a boat chase where they catch up with Tony Chantry and Marjorie who are trying to escape to Turkey.