Alan Silvestri

Biography:

Alan Silvestri was born on March 26, 1950. His grandparents emigrated from Castell’Alfero, Italy, in 1909 and settled in Teaneck, New Jersey, where Silvestri grew up. He graduated from Teaneck High School in 1968 and studied for two years at Berklee College of Music. Early on, he briefly played drums in a local rock band, the Wildcats, in 1966.

In 1972, while working as a session guitarist, Silvestri was asked to score the low-budget film The Doberman Gang. Despite limited experience, he accepted the challenge, learning composition on the spot—even using beer cans as percussion instruments.

From 1978 to 1983, Silvestri became the lead composer for the TV series CHiPs, scoring 95 of its 139 episodes. His big break came in 1984 when he collaborated with director Robert Zemeckis on Romancing the Stone. This began a long-standing partnership that produced iconic scores for films such as the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Forrest Gump (1994), Cast Away (2000), The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007), and The Walk (2015).

Silvestri also composed music for James Cameron’s The Abyss (1989) and later worked extensively with Stephen Sommers on The Mummy Returns (2001), Van Helsing (2004), and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009). He created the ImageMovers studio’s opening theme as well.

Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Silvestri scored Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). He is also set to compose for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. His themes have been reprised by other composers across the MCU.

Beyond film, Silvestri has written music for television, including episodes of T. J. Hooker, Starsky & Hutch, and Tales from the Crypt. In 2014, he earned acclaim for his award-winning score to the documentary series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. He also collaborated with Glen Ballard to create original songs for Disney’s live-action Pinocchio.

Outside of composing, Silvestri and his wife Sandra operate Silvestri Vineyards in Carmel Valley, California, complete with a tasting room in the Enchanted Oaks Building. They have three children, and Silvestri, a licensed pilot, often flies his own jet.