Born in Delphos, Ohio, she moved with her mother to Arizona, eventually living in Tucson.

[1] She eloped with her algebra teacher at age 15, but the marriage was annulled three years later.

[2] She appeared in the movie Easy Rider and guest-starred in the third-season episode of the original Star Trek, "The Paradise Syndrome".

[3] After Scharf quit acting in the 1970s, she became an anti-pollution activist and unsuccessfully ran for the California State Senate in 1976.

[5] Scharf became an attorney in 1989 and practiced real estate law in the Los Angeles Pacific Palisades neighborhood until 2017.