GWAR founding member and Sexecutioner performer Chuck Varga dies aged 68

Chuck Varga, a founding member of GWAR and the artist behind the band’s Sexecutioner character, has died aged 68. His death was announced on Friday (September 25) by longtime GWAR bassist Casey Orr, who performs as Beefcake The Mighty. Varga had been battling cancer, with the band launching a fundraiser to support him and his wife Bambi earlier this year. “Chuck Varga has left this earthly realm. He passed peacefully, his beloved wife Bambi holding his hand,” Orr wrote. “He was one of a kind. As an artist, as a performer; as a scholar and a gentleman. I’m better for having known him and the world is lesser for his leaving.” Orr added that Varga was likely being welcomed into “Valhalla” by late GWAR members Dave Brockie and Cory Smoot, before concluding: “Raise your glass and tell his tales. Legends never die. Hail Varga! Hail Sexecutioner!” Varga was instrumental in establishing the visual universe that became synonymous with GWAR’s music. After studying at Virginia Commonwealth University in the early 1980s, he co-founded Slave Pit Studios in Richmond, Virginia, where artists and musicians developed the elaborate costumes, props and films surrounding the group. Although he was not...