The leather-clad executioner Sexecutioner first took the GWAR stage in 1985, and finally hung up the costume for good in 2022. Across those 37 years, only one man ever played the role: Chuck Varga. The band's widely recognized founding member passed away on Friday, September 25th local time, at the age of 68.
The news was announced by GWAR's longtime bassist Casey Orr, known onstage as Beefcake The Mighty. Orr wrote: "Chuck Varga has left this world, passing peacefully with his beloved wife Bambi holding his hand." He described Varga as "an artist, a performer, a scholar, and a gentleman," adding: "Raise your glass and tell his tale. Legends never die. Hail Varga! Hail Sexecutioner!" Orr also noted that Varga is likely being welcomed into "Valhalla" right now by late GWAR members Dave Brockie and Cory Smoot.
Varga had been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, prompting the GWAR team to launch a fundraiser to help cover treatment costs and support his wife Bambi, who left her job to care for him full-time. Bob Gorman, another member of Slave Pit Studios, said at the time that Varga's "illustration, character design, performance, and artistic vision" can still be felt in GWAR today, adding that "his over-the-top underground art aesthetic defined an entire universe."
Varga wasn't part of GWAR's original lineup of musicians, but the band has always regarded him as a founding member, since he built the entire visual and production system behind the group. In the early 1980s, while studying at Virginia Commonwealth University, he co-founded Slave Pit Studios in Richmond, Virginia, which went on to become the production base for GWAR's over-the-top costumes, props, and videos.
Sexecutioner, the leather-clad, over-the-top executioner character he created, became a recurring fixture of GWAR's live shows. In 1997, Varga stepped back from full-time touring with the band to pursue Broadway production work in New York, but he continued playing Sexecutioner until officially retiring the character in 2022.
Beyond performing, he also lent his voice to the band, singing lead on the single "Sexecutioner" and later fronting the title track of the 1995 album "RagNaRok." In film, he co-wrote two GWAR feature films, including "Phallus In Wonderland," which received a Grammy nomination.
GWAR formed in Richmond in 1984, known for shows blending heavy metal, grotesque sci-fi characters, satire, fake blood, and over-the-top stage violence. Two other key members of the band have also passed: guitarist Cory Smoot (stage persona Flattus Maximus) died in 2011, and founding frontman Dave Brockie (stage persona Oderus Urungus) died in 2014 at age 50.
