Born in Ohio, Charlene graduated from Youngstown University, in the mid-1960s, where she married her first husband, poet Frank Polite. Following graduation, she acted in regional theater, including the Pittsburgh (PA) Playhouse, where she had a post-graduate scholarship. Later, she moved to San Francisco, CA to work at the American Conservatory Theater, formed by provocative stage director and Tony Award nominee William Ball, whom she met in Pittsburgh.
She divorced her first husband in the late 1960s and remarried, to actor Ramon Bieri (1929-2001). They lived in Northridge, in the San Fernando Valley. Following the end of her film career in 1976, she divorced Bieri, moved to San Diego, with her stepson, and acted again in regional theater.
In the late 1980s, her health declined. She moved back to Youngstown, Ohio, to be near the family of her first husband, where she died from complications of breast cancer.
Variously described as "a true child of the 1960s", "spiritual", "extravagant" and "eccentric" with a great sense of humor, she was a strikingly gorgeous red brunette who gave up her film career to devote her life raising her stepson.
