Donna Martin - Matt Durning

Matt Durning

Daniel Cosgrove portrays Matt Durning (Seasons 9-10), an attorney who became the legal go-to guy for various issues with the group, including Valerie's self-defense murder of her molesting father, Noah's drunken driving, and David's bogus statuatory rape charge. Although he and Donna were interested in each other while she was disgusted with Noah's behavior, their reunion turned his attention towards Kelly, and they began sleeping together as she got over Brandon's departure. Matt had a secret, though: his wife had been in an institution in New York due to severe mental illness, and later found medication that helped her enough that she could head to L.A. to be with him. Kelly broke up with him, but the medication later failed, and Matt's wife told him she loved him but was getting a divorce so he could have a life with Kelly. They then reunited, but Matt was thrown first by Kelly's one-night stand with Dylan (when they went to Mexico to illegally buy drugs that would have helped Matt's then-wife) and then by not knowing at first that Kelly was raped. He got a weapons charge against her dismissed after she shot and killed the rapist in self-defense, and they drifted apart for a while until Matt's handling of a death penalty appeal helped bring them back together. Matt and Dylan had a mostly-unfriendly rivalry over their shared love for Kelly, with Matt successfully proposing to Kelly but also having serious professional difficulties. Matt planned to move to Seattle as the series ended, but when his brother died in a car crash (Matt had provided a sperm sample so his infertile brother and his wife could have a child through artificial insemination), Matt moved to New York instead, breaking up with Kelly on civil terms, and agreeing that he saw the bond between her and Dylan was real.