Paul Bogart obit

Paul Bogart obituary

Emmy-winning director who began his career in the 'golden age' of television 

He was not on the list.

Directing for television has never had the prestige attributed to directing feature films, but Paul Bogart, who has died aged 92, did more than most to raise its status. The recipient of five Emmys, Bogart was a product of what has been dubbed "the golden age" of television – America's post-second world war era, when there was a proliferation of original live dramas. Gore Vidal once remarked of that period that "one could find better work oftener on the small grey screen than on Broadway".

Bogart, with John Frankenheimer, Sidney Lumet, Sydney Pollack and Delbert Mann, was among the first generation of TV directors. However, unlike his contemporaries, Bogart remained in television throughout his career, although he did make nine eclectic feature films.

"In an ideal world," Bogart said, "the feature film would be the form of my choice, because the time constraints of television production are absent. But I have a partiality for strong characters over a strong story. I therefore take advantage of the intimacy of the television medium." This Bogart did, often allowing the characters, even in sitcoms such as All in the Family and The Golden Girls, to reveal themselves through nuance and subtlety of staging.

He was born Paul Bogoff in Harlem, New York City, and later changed his name to Bogart to sound more American. After serving in the US Army Air Force during the second world war, Bogart began his career in show-business as a puppeteer with the Berkeley Marionettes in 1946. From there he went on to be stage manager and associate director at the television network NBC, working on live teleplays for the Kraft Television Theatre and Goodyear Playhouse. From 1961 onwards, Bogart directed episodes of the groundbreaking father-son lawyer series The Defenders, one of which, entitled The Seven Hundred Year Old Gang, gained him his first Emmy, in 1964.

Bogart went on to direct a number of other series such as The Nurses and Get Smart, as well as telefilm versions of Arthur Miller's adaptation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People (1966) and the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me Kate (1968). His first picture to get a cinema release was his black-and-white filmed version of Lee Strasberg's "Method" production of Chekhov's The Three Sisters (1966), with Geraldine Page, Kim Stanley and Sandy Dennis in the title roles.

There followed two films with Bogart's friend James Garner: Marlowe (1969), an updated version of Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister, with a wry Garner as the eponymous private eye; and Skin Game (1971), an enjoyable, anachronistic western with two conmen, Garner and Lou Gossett Jr, as "slave owner" and "slave".

Bogart gave the young Jeff Bridges his first film role in Halls of Anger (1970) as one of the few white students at a ghetto school, who experiences racism from his black classmates. A similar theme was to be found in Mr Ricco (1975), with Dean Martin as a criminal lawyer defending a black militant involved in a murder.

Bogart's direction of his other features was notable for being unnoticeable: Cancel My Reservation (1972), Bob Hope's last film; Class of '44 (1973), the likeable lightweight sequel to Summer of '42; Oh, God! You Devil (1984), the third and weakest of the "God" series, with George Burns; and Torch Song Trilogy (1988), based on Harvey Fierstein's Broadway play about the problems of a drag queen, played by the author, with Anne Bancroft as his nagging mother.

In between these occasional sorties into big-screen entertainment, Bogart was busy delivering scores of episodes of the TV series All in the Family, The Golden Girls and Bagdad Cafe, all expertly done. Among his later telefilms was Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost (1987), with John Gielgud, shot in the UK.

Bogart is survived by a son, Peter, and two daughters, Tracy and Jennifer, from his marriage to Jane Gitnick, which ended in divorce.

 Paul Bogart (Paul Bogoff), film and television director, born 13 November 1919; died 15 April 2012.

Filmography

 

Pinocchio (1957)

Hansel and Gretel (1958)

Ten Little Indians (1959)

The Citadel (1960)

Ages of Man (1960)

The Three Sisters (1966)

Evening Primrose (1966)

An Enemy of the People (1966)

The Trap of Solid Gold (1967)

The Final War of Olly Winter (1967)

Hal Holbrook: Mark Twain Tonight! (1967)

Carousel (1967)

Johnny Belinda (1967)

Kiss Me Kate (1968)

Marlowe (1969)

Halls of Anger (1970)

In Search of America (1971)

Skin Game (1971)

Look Homeward, Angel (1972)

Cancel My Reservation (1972)

The House Without a Christmas Tree (1972)

Class of '44 (1973)

The Thanksgiving Treasure (1973)

Double Solitaire (1974)

The Country Girl (1974)

Tell Me Where It Hurts (1974)

Mr. Ricco (1975)

Winner Take All (1975)

The Easter Promise (1975)

The Owl and the Pussycat (1975)

The War Widow (1976)

You Can't Take It with You (1979)

Fun and Games (1980)

Oh, God! You Devil (1984)

The Canterville Ghost (1986)

Nutcracker: Money, Madness and Murder (1987)

Torch Song Trilogy (1988)

Broadway Bound (1992)

The Last Mile (1992)

The Gift of Love (1994)

The Heidi Chronicles (1995)