Maximilian Schell: Hollywood's Creepiest Father Figure?

Mad Bess and I watched Deep Impact tonight, for the third time... took us back to the dawn of our dating days and made us both cry and all, just as it did both times before.  Also Robert Duvall proves he is just as much a stone cold badass action hero as Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, or Liam Neeson (OK, maybe not Liam Neeson, but ol' Bobby does his best in this film, God love him!)  Seriously though, Hollywood, could you not have found someone less creepy and sinister than Maximilian Schell to play the protagonist's estranged father, who we are apparently supposed to empathize with?  Yeesh... I kept expecting him to reveal that he had engineered the whole comet disaster scenario as part of his world domination strategy, he comes across so much like a damn Bond villain!  He and James Cromwell should have traded roles; if I were Tea Leoni I'd much rather spend my dying moments hugging affable James Cromwell than creepy old Max Schell!  Gah!!

Daddy!