Switzerland's cyclist Marlen Reusser reacts after placing second in the women' elite time trial race of the UCI World Championships Road Cycling Flanders 2021, in Bruges, on September 20, 2021. UCI World Championships Road Cycling Flanders 2021 takes place from September 19 until September 26, 2021, in several cities in the Belgian region of Flanders. (Photo by Simon Wilkinson/BELGA via AFP Photo)

“Nicholas II (Russian: Николай II, Николай Александрович Романов, tr. Nikolay II, Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov) (18 May [O.S. 6 May] 1868 – 17 July 1918) was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Prince of Finland, and titular King of Poland. His official title was Nicholas II, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias and he is known as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church. Nicholas II, his wife, his son, his four daughters, the family's medical doctor, the Tsar's valet, the Empress' lady-in-waiting and the family's cook were murdered in the same room by the Bolsheviks on the night of 16/17 July 1918”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Tsar Nicholas II (1868–1918) with his wife. (Photo by W. & D. Downey/Getty Images). Circa 1900

“Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914, Larvik, Norway – April 18, 2002, Colla Micheri, Italy) was a Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer with a background in zoology and geography. He became notable for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed 8,000 km (4,300 miles) by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands. All his expeditions are shown in the Kon-Tiki Museum, Oslo”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl with a model of the balsa raft “Kon-Tiki” on which he drifted 4,300 miles from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands, proving his theory that Polynesia could originally have been populated by South Americans. (Photo by Express/Express/Getty Images). 1950

A person shelters from the rain in a flooded underpass by Lawrence Hill Roundabout, Bristol on Monday, September 23, 2024. An amber weather warning for heavy rain has come into force in parts of England, with the Met Office warning that affected areas could experience more than a month's worth of rain falling on Monday. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)

Young people play with foam during a march to commemorate Youth Day in Caracas, Venezuela, 12 February 2025. The president of Venezuela's National Assembly (AN, Parliament), Chavista Jorge Rodriguez, invited, before hundreds of followers who commemorated Youth Day, all young migrants to return to the country so that they can “build a prosperous homeland”. (Photo by Ronald Pena R./EPA)

Valeria Gonzalez Maidana of Paraguay performs in the final round of the first Budapest Ballet Grand Prix in the National Dance Theatre in Budapest, Hungary on November 23, 2023. The international ballet competition was launched by the Hungarian Dance University, a leading training facility of Hungarian professional dancers, to promote ballet and dance art in Hungary. The competition offers young dancers an opportunity to compete and gain exposure in the international dance scene, and provides scholarships and career opportunities for the most outstanding dancers. The event runs from 21 to 24 November. (Photo by Tamas Vasvari/EPA)

Photographer Howard Schatz had an idea: place actors in a series of roles and dramatic situations to reveal the essence of their characters. Such was the premise behind his book, In Character: Actors Acting, which captures some of Hollywood’s most emotive stars in the act of, well, making faces. Luckily for us, he continued the tradition for Vanity Fair. Here are some of the best.

A schoolgirl stands next to the Kenya-Uganda railway line during the partial reopening of schools, after the government scrapped plans to cancel the academic year due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya on October 12, 2020. (Photo by Thomas Mukoya/Reuters)