Carnivále

   Lila
   Played by Debra Christofferson

 

Lila Villanueva (23 episodes, 2003-2005) - The so called "Bearded Lady of Brussels" was born in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, to a circus family in 1890. Given their genetic predisposition, the hirsute family performed under the stage name "Villalobos" (literally, "House of Wolves"). Lila, her two brothers, Oscar and Raoul, and her parents traveled throughout the Southeast, spurning the freak-show tents for the high-wire. The "Flying Villalobos" were soon signed with the Ringling Brothers Circus, traveling the international circuit for five years before Oscar fell to his death in Copenhagen in 1905, a tragedy from which the family never recovered. Her father, shattered by the loss of his eldest son, committed suicide three years later.

At sixteen, already graced with a thick, silky beard, Lila married for the first time to a ventriloquist, Paco Soza. In her own words, "Paco was beautiful, but that fucking dummy, Gordito, drove me nuts." After less than six weeks, the marriage was annulled. Over the next fifty years, Lila was married over nineteen times, "twenty if you count Gordito." But the one, true love of her life was Professor Lodz. By all accounts, she never emotionally recovered from his disappearance in late 1934.