The fourth of five children of Russian immigrant parents Alexei Holoboff and Vasalisa Perepolkin. Around 1922 the Holoboff family came to Los Angeles, some becoming employees of the Goodyear Tire factory. Eventually, most returned to farming in Canada, but Mike remained in Southern California, attending school while living with his older brother Sam. Sometime in the early thirties Mike started work at the Hyperion Studio. Like most early employees, he was probably personally interviewed and hired by Walt Disney. He worked on Snow White (1938), Bambi (1942), Pinocchio (1940), and Fantasia (1942) as an uncredited assistant director. For the 1945 mixed animation-live action film Three Caballeros, Mike was an assistant sequence director. He was again an assistant director on Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Melody Time, and Cinderella (1950). Mike's career was centered around on the production side of animation and live-action filming, and he generally did not have creative input into the finished product. When Disney entered the television era, Mike finally got a chance to direct, with The Disneyland Story episode of Disneyland in 1954.-http://www.originalmmc.com/holoboff.html
