Chuck Varga, a founding member of the shock-rock heavy metal band GWAR who took the stage as the character Sexecutioner, died of cancer on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. He was 68.
GWAR is scheduled to begin its fall tour on Oct. 27. The band has not announced whether Varga’s death will affect those performances.
Casey Orr, the GWAR bassist who performs as Beefcake the Mighty, announced the death in a Facebook post. “Chuck Varga has left this earthly realm. He passed peacefully, his beloved wife Bambi holding his hand. He was one of a kind. As an artist, as a performer; as a scholar and a gentleman,” Orr wrote, adding that the world “is lesser for his leaving.”
Orr said Varga was likely being “welcomed into Valhalla right now by Brockie and Smooty and all who went before.” Those nicknames point to two departed bandmates: frontman and GWAR co-founder Dave Brockie, whose character was Oderus Urungus, and guitarist Cory Smoot, who took the role of Flattus Maximus. Brockie, who co-founded GWAR while attending Virginia Commonwealth University, died March 23, 2014, at 50.
In the same post, Orr asked fans to raise a glass and tell stories about Varga. “Legends never die. Hail Varga! Hail Sexicutioner!” he wrote.
Band Posts Its Own Tribute
GWAR posted a tribute on Instagram on Sept. 27, calling Varga an artist, a vocalist and “a brother to everyone in the band.” The band wrote: “There are some losses that hit harder than others. The world lost Chuck Varga a few days ago, and GWAR lost one of its own.”
Varga lived in Brooklyn, N.Y. His wife, Bambi, survives him.
Diagnosis and Blood Drive
His bandmates made the cancer diagnosis public in April by launching a nationwide blood donation campaign, and anyone who donated received an exclusive shirt of his own design. A fundraiser followed in June, organized by the band to help Varga and his wife cover medical, hospice and housing costs.
Bob Gorman, the GWAR member who plays Bonesnapper, said at the time: “Chuck Varga’s contributions to the Gwar and Slave Pit collective are enormous.” He added, “The influence of his illustrations, character designs, performances, and artistic vision can still be felt throughout Gwar today.”
From Richmond to New York
Varga was born in Virginia in 1958. He studied at Virginia Commonwealth University in the early 1980s and struck up a friendship there with a fellow student, Hunter Jackson. Jackson had set up a production space, the Slave Pit, to make a science-fiction film, and the musicians, artists and filmmakers who gathered in it — Varga among them — formed the community out of which GWAR grew. He went on to co-found Slave Pit Studios in Richmond, Va.
Accounts of the band’s founding differ. One says GWAR formed in Richmond, Va., in 1984, while others say Varga helped form the costume-wearing act in 1985.
GWAR fused heavy metal with science fiction and Norse mythology, dressed in Kiss-style costumes taken to violent and grotesque extremes. Known for outlandish getups and intentionally offensive lyrics, the act won over audiences around Richmond first and built a national following afterward. Varga designed characters and props for the band.
As Sexecutioner, he “was part of eight major touring productions and co-authored two feature-length films, including the Grammy-nominated Phallus in Wonderland,” one account of his career said, and he was responsible for designing costumes, sets, props and comic book narratives for the Gwar universe. He sang lead on his signature songs, including “Sexecutioner” and “Ragnarok.”
Albums and Grammy Nominations
GWAR released its debut album, “Hell-O,” in 1988, and 1992’s “America Must Be Destroyed” cracked the Billboard 200. The band was nominated in 1993 for Best Long Form Music Video for “Phallus in Wonderland,” losing to Annie Lennox, and picked up a second Grammy nomination in 1996 for Best Metal Performance for the single “S.F.W.,” a category that went to Nine Inch Nails. The band’s 2013 release “Battle Maximus” peaked at No. 7 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart.
Accounts of Varga’s time with the band also differ. One says he performed with GWAR from the mid-1980s until 1997 and, according to the band, returned for stints from 2000 to 2002 and 2014 to 2017, retiring from the stage after GWAR’s Halloween Scumdog Reunion in 2021. Another dates his tenure as Sexecutioner from 1985 to 2021. A third says he sang vocals “during its 1986-1996 breakthrough, returning for stints from 2000-02, 2014-17 and 2022.”
After leaving the band in 1997, Varga moved to New York City, where he pursued work in film, television and Broadway. Hyperreal Productions, a costume and set design company, grew out of a partnership he formed with fellow GWAR alumnus Don Drakulich.
