Leon Holmes

Biography

Leon Holmes (real name Leon von Cederholm) was born November 26, 1913 in San Francisco to immigrant parents. His father Alfred Sederhulden, thirty-eight years old at Leon's birth, was a watchmaker from Russia. Leon's mother, Rose, then 33, was also Russian-born. The Sederhuldens lived on Eddy Street in San Francisco with Rose's mother and two brothers. Leon was the youngest; his older brothers were Norvin and Robert, and his older sister was Isabel. His father died a few years after Leon's birth and Rose was forced to place the children in the Pacific Hebrews Orphan Asylum on Divisadero Street in San Francisco while she worked to support them. Rose got a job as a bakery clerk and continued to live with her mother and a brother in the Eddy Street, a half-mile from the orphanage. By the time Leon was cast in one of Alice Comedies, he, his siblings, and his mother were reunited in one roof in Los Angeles. The family lived on North Hudson Avenue, about two and one-half miles west of Disney studio in Kingwell Avenue. Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney hired some kids of the neighbor for different productions. Leon was paid 50 cents a day for shooting.