Albee's lacerating play, about a failed academic and his vindictive wife who funnel their disappointment and anger into verbal barbs and hourly betrayals, shook Broadway by the neck when it opened in 1962. Though Mr. Hill seemed to have the less flashy role—quiet stealth bomber to Martha's rocket launcher—many considered his performance the equal of Hagen's. Robert Brustein called him "astonishingly good…by turns meek and malicious, driving toward the jugular with a fury born of despair."