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Sandra Mae Trentman, known as Sandy, was a typical small-town girl. Her parents divorced while she was in grade school. During her seventh-grade year, her mother decided they needed a change, so they left Delphos, Ohio, moving first to Van Wert, Ohio, for two years, then out west to Arizona. While attending high school in Tucson, her algebra teacher proposed to her. At 15, believing it was her only chance, she accepted. They eloped in San Diego, where Sandy's mother had taken a job at Scripps Hospital. However, it soon became clear that a 15-year-old high school girl wasn’t ready to be a housewife, and the marriage was annulled after three years.
After briefly studying pre-med at the University of Arizona, a newly single Sandy reinvented herself as Sabrina Scharf, adopting her mother’s maiden name. She drove to New York and stopped at a Greenwich Village diner for a burger. There, she joined a long table of members from a local off-Broadway theater group. Learning she had no place to stay, they invited her to live at their theater and become an assistant. Although she hadn’t planned on acting, she soon landed a small role in one of their productions. During rehearsals, it became clear she wasn’t a natural actress and would need formal training if she wanted to continue on stage.
The Neighborhood Playhouse offered the best acting program but required full-time enrollment. While visiting California to see her mother, her New York agent arranged for her to meet West Coast agents in Los Angeles. At that time, Columbia Studios was building a group of low-paid contract players. Scharf, now a former Playboy Bunny, and eleven others were signed by the studio. Her film career began with an episode of Gidget in 1965.
In 1972, Scharf ran for the California State Senate, aiming to become the first woman elected to the state’s upper legislative house. She narrowly lost by just 700 votes out of more than 250,000 cast. Her husband, Bob Schiller, with whom she had two children, and his writing partner Bob Weiskopf were working on the sitcom Maude at the time and used this experience as inspiration for the "Maude Runs for Congress" episodes. Later, Scharf pursued a career as a real estate developer in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
