Attorney Behind the Actor Is a Character, Too : Law: The show business ties of Robert L. Diamond, who is representing ‘Cheers’ star Kelsey Grammer on a drug charge, go way back.

Actress Kirstie Alley walks into the office of attorney Robert L. Diamond and can’t resist pretending she’s on horseback, galloping around and whinnying.

A city attorney neighs and paws the floor each time he passes Diamond in the courtroom.

And when Diamond approaches the bench during a trial, more than one judge has inquired about the health of his horse. One judge even asked about his dog.

Excuse me, your honor. Wrong show.

It seems that no one will let the Woodland Hills attorney forget that he played Joey in “Fury,” the TV series about a boy and his horse that ran from 1955 to 1960 on NBC.

Bobby Diamond grew up to practice law in a modest two-lawyer firm on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills, but his practice is sprinkled with Hollywood names from TV of the ‘50s: Tommy Rettig and Donald Keeler of “Lassie,” Paul Petersen of “The Donna Reed Show,” Jimmy Hawkins of “Annie Oakley.”

“As kids we always ran into each other at auditions and publicity stunts for the media. We remain friends, and when they needed an attorney, they called me,” Diamond said.

But it is a name from TV in the ‘80s that has put Diamond back in the spotlight--his client Kelsey Grammer, better known as Dr. Frasier Crane on “Cheers,” NBC’s popular Thursday night show.

Grammer, 35, was scheduled to be arraigned yesterday on charges of cocaine possession. A Los Angeles police officer has testified that Grammer confessed to dropping a small packet of cocaine in his patrol car after the actor was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in 1988. Grammer spent 12 days in jail earlier this month for violating probation on an unrelated drunk driving conviction.

Again, Diamond, 46, found a client because of a tie with his past. Grammer’s girlfriend was once a girlfriend of Diamond’s.

Alley, who plays bar manager Rebecca Howe on “Cheers,” appeared in court to plead for leniency on the probation violation charge. The reason Alley is apt to go into her equestrian act with him, Diamond said, is that “she did that every time she watched ‘Fury’ as a child,” she told him.

The Grammer case strikes Diamond as a bit too Hollywood. Supermarket tabloids scream about a wild, free-flowing cocaine party that allegedly took place at Grammer’s Van Nuys home.

“This is a place where no Hollywood party has ever been thrown,” Diamond said. “If you ever saw where Grammer lives, well, there are tall weeds everywhere. The pool is a swamp, with new forms of life growing in it.”

Diamond shrugged his shoulders and said, more seriously, “Grammer may drink a little too much, but not drugs.”

The actor-turned-lawyer behind the TV star Grammer is in himself a study in character.

“There is a very serious side to Bob,” said Reseda attorney and friend George Aaron, 38. “Sure, he has a healthy ego, but he’s very good at trials. I’ve seen him stay up overnight and pore over facts to make sure nothing slips by.”

Robert LeRoy Diamond entered show business at the age of 2 when a photograph of him sitting in a hat surrounded by ducks at the family home in Rosemead ended up in Family Circle Magazine.

By the time he was 5, he had an agent and a bit part in Cecil B. De Mille’s “The Greatest Show on Earth.” “I’m 25 rows up with a bag of popcorn in my hand,” he said. “You have to look real, real close.”

He was working fairly constantly as a child actor, mostly on TV, before he ended up on “Fury” at age 10.

Diamond was Joey, the adopted son of Jim Newton, played by Peter Graves. Plots were predictable: Fury and Joey would get into trouble; there would be a fire, or cattle rustlers, or a lost child, or maybe a bully. Diamond attended school on the set and earned $350 per episode. Not bad, he said, until he realized that Fury the horse was getting $1,500. By the end of the show’s run, he was earning $750 an episode, and Fury was getting $4,500. “They could always dump me,” he quipped, “but they needed that horse.”

After “Fury,” Diamond said, he made a choice between two sitcoms new to the 1961 TV schedule. He had his choice of playing either Buddy on “The Nanette Fabray Show” or the second son in what would become the long-running “My Three Sons.” He decided to play Buddy. “Fabray” lasted a single season.

“Great decision, eh?” he said. “I could have been a multimultimillionaire just from that alone.” He paused. “Hell, I’m still a multimillionaire, so who cares? What’s a couple more million?”

Diamond went on to guest on “My Three Sons” and other shows, including “The FBI Story,” “Mr. Ed,” “Wagon Train” and “The Twilight Zone.”

Still acting part time, Diamond attended Los Angeles Valley College and competed in gymnastics there before graduating from San Fernando Valley State College (now Cal State Northridge) with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism in 1965. He earned his law degree in 1970 from the University of San Fernando Valley College of Law in Van Nuys. He married four years ago and has a 2-year-old son.

“We were all surprised when he became an attorney,” said his brother and fellow attorney Gary, 42. “He wasn’t that good in scholastic achievement, and no one thought that he’d make it.”

But for Diamond, being a lawyer may be the next best thing to being on stage.

“He likes attention, and he likes to perform,” Aaron said, “and he has this ability to say in one minute what most of us take 15 to do.”

His last acting credits on stage are fairly recent--two dozen episodes of “Divorce Court” from 1984 to 1986, where he appeared as an attorney first known as Steve North, then later as Robert Diamond.

Diamond responded with a quick “yes” when asked if he’d return to acting. But there’s still an element of acting in being a trial lawyer, he said.

“It’s a little more serious,” he added. “If you blow a couple of lines during an audition, you don’t get the part. If you blow a couple of lines here, your client goes away for a year.”