Paul Bogart, a puppeteer who bumbled into the new medium of television in 1950 and rose to be an Emmy-winning director known for popular shows like “All in the Family” and “The Defenders,” died on Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 92 and lived in Chapel Hill.


His son, Peter, announced the death.


Mr. Bogart was recognized as a master of live television, from game shows to high drama, and later as the respected director of filmed shows like “Get Smart.” Known for his skill in positioning actors for best effect and his attention to editing, he was “always just this side or that side of brilliant,” Tom Shales wrote in The Washington Post in 1979.


In 1982, The Christian Science Monitor called Mr. Bogart “America’s leading sitcom director.” Mr. Bogart once said that the situation comedy is “held in low regard by everyone except those who watch it.”


One of his five Emmys was for directing an episode of “All in the Family” titled “Edith’s 50th Birthday,” considered by many to be one of the more nerve-shattering shows in television history. First shown in October 1977, it depicted an intruder trying to rape Edith, played by Jean Stapleton, a character who had become beloved for her sweet naïveté.


Mr. Bogart also won an Emmy in 1965 for directing a two-part episode of the series “The Defenders.” Titled “The 700 Year Old Gang,” it told the story of an elderly vintner prosecuted for bootlegging. In 1968 and 1970, he won for directing episodes of “CBS Playhouse.”


His fifth Emmy, shared with five others in 1986, was for his work as a producer of “The Golden Girls,” which was named outstanding comedy.


Mr. Bogart’s theatrical films included “Marlowe” (1969), based on Raymond Chandler’s 1949 novel “The Little Sister” and starring James Garner; and Bob Hope’s last film, “Cancel My Reservation” (1972). He also directed “Class of ’44” (1973), a schmaltzy sequel to the 1971 hit “Summer of ’42” that bombed with critics and at the box office.


Paul Bogoff, who would later change his name to sound more American (the family had earlier changed it from Bogoslavsky for the same reason), was born in Harlem.


In a 2001 interview with the Archive of American Television, he said that his birthday was Nov. 13, 1919, but that one of his parents put Nov. 21 on the birth certificate because he or she considered the number 13 unlucky. They later blamed each other for the change.


His parents divorced when he was a child, and he, his mother and his two sisters depended on charity to survive. He developed a taste for show business by stealing money to go to the movies.


He graduated from James Monroe High School in the Bronx, but couldn’t afford college. While working as a printer, he answered an ad saying, “Puppeteer: No Experience Necessary.” He joined a traveling marionette troupe.


In 1941, he married Alma Jane Gitnick. They divorced in the 1970s. In addition to his son, Mr. Bogart is survived by his sister, Jeanette Cavaris; his daughters, Tracy and Jennifer Bogart; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.


Mr. Bogart served in the Army Air Forces in World War II, and returned to the marionette company as well as working at odd jobs, including truck driver.


A friend told him there might be a television job at NBC and he applied, lying about his experience and education. He was ushered to the studio where “Broadway Open House,” network television’s first late-night comedy-variety show, was being televised. He was introduced to the floor manager, as stage managers were then called, during a commercial break. The floor manager handed him his earphones and scurried off to another set.


Winging it, Mr. Bogart realized the voice coming through the earphones was from the director sitting in the booth. He then correctly inferred that he was supposed to pass on the director’s instructions to the actors with hand signals, which he made up.


Such were the early days of TV. “Everybody was making up their job,” Mr. Bogart said.


He soon moved up to associate director and worked on the new “Today” show, “Howdy Doody” and other shows. He began directing live dramas in what is now called television’s golden age. He worked with the producer Herbert Brodkin on an episode of “The Goodyear Playhouse,” which led to his working with Mr. Brodkin on “The Defenders.”


The author Budd Schulberg, writing in Life magazine in 1970, called Mr. Bogart “an actor’s director,” describing him as “a bearded Buddha with satyric eyes that conceal his philosophic gentleness.”


But he had an edge. Newsweek in 1989 reported on a meeting he had with Harvey Fierstein about possibly directing Mr. Fierstein’s “Torch Song Trilogy” as a movie. It had been a success on Broadway, where it ran from 1982 to 1985, but Mr. Fierstein, who both wrote and starred in the play, had delayed making a movie version. “Torch Song” told of the life and loves of a New York drag queen, and no director had seemed quite appropriate, until he met Mr. Bogart, who he said “seemed so naturally unafraid” of the material.


Mr. Fierstein may have been persuaded by what happened when they first met. He was wearing a see-through, floor-length black bathrobe. Mr. Bogart took one look and said, “This is our first meeting; don’t you think you should cover your breasts?”