Alan Silvestri

Alan Silvestri
Silvestri in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Alan Anthony Silvestri
Born	(1950-03-26) March 26, 1950 New York City, New York
Genres	Film score
Occupation(s)	Composer, conductor
Instrument	Drums
Years active	1972–present

Alan Anthony Silvestri (born March 26, 1950) is an American composer and conductor known for his film and television scores.

He is best known for his frequent collaboration with Robert Zemeckis, composing for such major hit films as the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cast Away, and Forrest Gump. Silvestri also composed scores for the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. His other film scores include Predator and its sequel Predator 2, The Abyss, The Quick and the Dead, Mac and Me, Mouse Hunt, Stuart Little, The Mummy Returns, Lilo & Stitch, Night at the Museum and its sequels, and Ready Player One. He is a two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominee, and a three-time Saturn Award and Primetime Emmy Award recipient.

Early life and education

Silvestri's grandparents emigrated in 1909 from the Italian town of Castell'Alfero, and settled in Teaneck, New Jersey. He grew up in Teaneck, and attended Teaneck High School. He went to Berklee College of Music for two years. Alan was a drummer for a short time in 1966 with Teaneck-based rock band The Herd.

Career

Silvestri started his film/television composing career in 1972 at age 21 composing the score for the low-budget action film The Doberman Gang.

From 1977 to 1983, Silvestri served as the main composer for the television series CHiPs, writing music for 95 of the series' 139 episodes.

Silvestri met film director Robert Zemeckis when the two worked together on Zemeckis's film Romancing the Stone (1984). Since then, Silvestri has composed the music for all of Zemeckis's movies, including the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Death Becomes Her (1992), Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000), The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007), A Christmas Carol (2009), Flight (2012) and The Walk (2015).

In 1989, Silvestri composed the score for the James Cameron-directed blockbuster The Abyss, and is also known for his work on the films Predator (1987) and Predator 2 (1990), both of which are considered preeminent examples of action/science fiction film scores. Since 2001, Silvestri has also collaborated regularly with director Stephen Sommers, scoring the films The Mummy Returns (2001), Van Helsing (2004), and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009). His most recent work includes The Avengers (2012), The Croods (2013), Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Silvestri has also composed music for television series, including T. J. Hooker (one episode), Starsky & Hutch (three episodes), Tales from the Crypt (seven episodes). In 2014, he composed the award-winning music for the science documentary series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.

On January 31, 2014, it was announced that a stage musical adaptation of Back to the Future was in production. The show, which is being co-written by original writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, was expected to be performed in 2015, on the 30th anniversary year of the film. Silvestri teamed up with Glen Ballard to compose a new score, with the addition of original songs from the film, including "The Power of Love", "Johnny B. Goode", "Earth Angel" and "Mr. Sandman".

Personal life

Silvestri and his wife Sandra own a vineyard, Silvestri Vineyards, located in Carmel Valley, California. He has a daughter and two sons and has a license to fly his own jet plane.

Awards

Silvestri has received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Original Score for Forrest Gump (1994) and one for Best Original Song for "Believe" on The Polar Express soundtrack. He also received two Golden Globe nominations: Best Score for Forrest Gump and Best Song for The Polar Express.

Silvestri was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music in 1995.

He has also received four Grammy Award nominations, winning two awards – Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, for "Believe" from The Polar Express in 2004 and Best Instrumental Composition, for "Cast Away End Credits" from Cast Away in 2002. His other nomination was for Best Soundtrack Album, for Back to the Future. During the 2005 Grammy Awards, Josh Groban performed "Believe".

He has won two Emmys, both for Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey – Outstanding Main Title Theme Music and Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for the episode "Standing Up in the Milky Way".

He has won the Saturn Award for Best Music three times, for his scores for Predator (1987), Back to the Future Part III (1989/90) and Van Helsing (2004).

On September 23, 2011, he was awarded with the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award by the City of Vienna at the yearly film music gala concert Hollywood in Vienna.

Discography

Films

1970s

Year	Title	Director	Studio	Notes
1972	The Doberman Gang	Byron Chudnow	Dimension Pictures	With Bradford Craig
1975	Las Vegas Lady	Noel Nosseck	Crown International Pictures	N/A
1976	The Amazing Dobermans	Byron Ross Chudnow	Golden Films	N/A
1978	The Fifth Floor	Howard Avedis	Film Ventures International	N/A

1980s

Year	Title	Director	Studio	Notes
1983	Tiger Man	Matt Cimber	N/A	Credited as Alan Sylvestri
1984	Romancing the Stone	Robert Zemeckis	20th Century Fox	First collaboration with Robert Zemeckis
	Par où t'es rentré ? On t'a pas vu sortir	Philippe Clair	Gaumont Film Company	N/A
1985	Fandango	Kevin Reynolds	Amblin Entertainment Warner Bros.	N/A
	Cat's Eye	Lewis Teague	De Laurentiis Entertainment Group Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	N/A
	Back to the Future	Robert Zemeckis	Amblin Entertainment Universal Pictures	Second collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Music Nominated — Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media
	Summer Rental	Carl Reiner	Paramount Pictures	N/A
1986	The Clan of the Cave Bear	Michael Chapman	Producers Sales Organization Warner Bros.	N/A
	The Delta Force	Menahem Golan	Golan-Globus The Cannon Group	N/A
	American Anthem	Albert Magnoli	Lorimar Motion Pictures Columbia Pictures	N/A
	Flight of the Navigator	Randal Kleiser	Walt Disney Pictures	N/A
	No Mercy	Richard Pearce	TriStar Pictures	N/A
1987	Critical Condition	Michael Apted	Paramount Pictures	N/A
	Outrageous Fortune	Arthur Hiller	Silver Screen Partners II Interscope Communications Touchstone Pictures	Won - BMI Film Music Award
	Predator	John McTiernan	Lawrence Gordon Productions Silver Pictures Davis Entertainment 20th Century Fox	Won - Saturn Award for Best Music Won - BMI Film Music Award
	Overboard	Garry Marshall	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	N/A
1988	Mac and Me	Stewart Raffill	Orion Pictures	N/A
	Who Framed Roger Rabbit	Robert Zemeckis	Amblin Entertainment Touchstone Pictures	Third collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Also conductor Won - BMI Film Music Award Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Music Nominated — Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media
	My Stepmother Is an Alien	Richard Benjamin	Weintraub Entertainment Group Columbia Pictures	N/A
1989	She's Out of Control	Stan Dragoti	Weintraub Entertainment Group Columbia Pictures	N/A
	The Abyss	James Cameron	Lightstorm Entertainment (special edition only) 20th Century Fox	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Music
	Back to the Future Part II	Robert Zemeckis	Amblin Entertainment Universal Pictures	Fourth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Won - BMI Film Music Award

1990s

Year	Title	Director	Studio	Notes
1990	Downtown	Richard Benjamin	20th Century Fox	N/A
	Back to the Future Part III	Robert Zemeckis	Amblin Entertainment Universal Pictures	Fifth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Won - Saturn Award for Best Music Won - BMI Film Music Award
	Young Guns II	Geoff Murphy	Morgan Creek Productions 20th Century Fox	Themes by Anthony Marinelli and Brian Banks
	Predator 2	Stephen Hopkins	Silver Pictures Gordon Company Davis Entertainment 20th Century Fox	First collaboration with Stephen Hopkins
1991	Shattered	Wolfgang Petersen	Davis Entertainment Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	Also orchestrator Replaced Angelo Badalamenti
	Back to the Future: The Ride	David De Vos Douglas Trumbull	Universal Studios Florida	Film in simulator ride
	Soapdish	Michael Hoffman	Paramount Pictures	Also orchestrator
	Dutch	Peter Faiman	Hughes Entertainment 20th Century Fox	Also pianist
	Ricochet	Russell Mulcahy	HBO Films Silver Pictures Warner Bros.	Also conductor
	Father of the Bride	Charles Shyer	Sandollar Productions Touchstone Pictures	Won - BMI Film Music Award
1992	Two-Fisted Tales	Richard Donner Tom Holland Robert Zemeckis	Carolco Pictures	Segment: Yellow Segment was extracted to become an individual episode of Tales from the Crypt
	Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot	Roger Spottiswoode	Northern Lights Entertainment Universal Pictures	N/A
	FernGully: The Last Rainforest	Bill Kroyer	Kroyer Films FAI Films 20th Century Fox	N/A
	Death Becomes Her	Robert Zemeckis	Universal Pictures	Sixth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Music
	Diner	Graham Morris Karen Peterson	Marvel Productions	Short film
	The Bodyguard	Mick Jackson	Tig Productions Warner Bros.	Won - BMI Film Music Award
	Sidekicks	Aaron Norris	Triumph Films	N/A
1993	In Search of the Obelisk	Douglas Trumbull Arish Fyzee	IMAX	IMAX film
	Cop and a Half	Henry Winkler	Imagine Entertainment Universal Pictures	N/A
	Super Mario Bros.	Rocky Morton Annabel Jankel	Allied Filmmakers Cinergi Pictures Hollywood Pictures	Replaced Jerry Goldsmith
	Judgment Night	Stephen Hopkins	Largo Entertainment Universal Pictures	Second collaboration with Stephen Hopkins
	Grumpy Old Men	Donald Petrie	Warner Bros.	Won - BMI Film Music Award
1994	Clean Slate	Mick Jackson	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	N/A
	Forrest Gump	Robert Zemeckis	Paramount Pictures	Seventh collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Nominated — Academy Award for Best Original Score Won - BMI Film Music Award Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Music Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
	Blown Away	Stephen Hopkins	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	Third collaboration with Stephen Hopkins
	Richie Rich	Donald Petrie	Harvey Films Silver Pictures Davis Entertainment Warner Bros. Family Entertainment	N/A
1995	The Quick and the Dead	Sam Raimi	TriStar Pictures	N/A
	The Perez Family	Mira Nair	The Samuel Goldwyn Company	N/A
	Judge Dredd	Danny Cannon	Cinergi Pictures Hollywood Pictures	Also conductor Replaced David Arnold and Jerry Goldsmith
	Father of the Bride Part II	Charles Shyer	Touchstone Pictures	Won - BMI Film Music Award
	Grumpier Old Men	Howard Deutch	Warner Bros.
1996	Sgt. Bilko	Jonathan Lynn	Imagine Entertainment Universal Pictures	Also conductor
	Eraser	Chuck Russell	Kopelson Entertainment Warner Bros.	Won - BMI Film Music Award Also conductor
	The Long Kiss Goodnight	Renny Harlin	New Line Cinema	Also conductor
1997	Fools Rush In	Andy Tennant	Columbia Pictures	N/A
	Volcano	Mick Jackson	Original Film Fox 2000 Pictures 20th Century Fox	Also conductor
	Contact	Robert Zemeckis	Warner Bros.	Eighth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Won - ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Music
	Mouse Hunt	Gore Verbinski	DreamWorks Pictures	N/A
1998	The Odd Couple II	Howard Deutch	Paramount Pictures	Also conductor
	The Parent Trap	Nancy Meyers	Walt Disney Pictures
	Holy Man	Stephen Herek	Caravan Pictures Touchstone Pictures
	Practical Magic	Griffin Dunne	Village Roadshow Pictures Warner Bros.	Also conductor Replaced Michael Nyman
1999	Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box	Brett Leonard	IMAX	IMAX film
	Stuart Little	Rob Minkoff	Columbia Pictures	Won - ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films Also conductor

2000s

Year	Title	Director	Studio	Notes
2000	Reindeer Games	John Frankenheimer	Dimension Films Miramax Films	Also conductor
	Cast Away	Robert Zemeckis	ImageMovers Playtone 20th Century Fox (US) DreamWorks Pictures (International)	Ninth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Won - ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films Also conductor
	What Lies Beneath	Robert Zemeckis	ImageMovers DreamWorks Pictures (US) 20th Century Fox (International)	Tenth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Won - ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films Also conductor and orchestrator
	What Women Want	Nancy Meyers	Icon Entertainment Wind Dancer Films Paramount Pictures	Also conductor and orchestrator
2001	The Mexican	Gore Verbinski	DreamWorks Pictures	Also conductor and orchestrator
	The Mummy Returns	Stephen Sommers	Alphaville Films Universal Pictures	Won - ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films
	Serendipity	Peter Chelsom	Tapestry Films Miramax Films	Also conductor
2002	Showtime	Tom Dey	Village Roadshow Pictures Warner Bros.	Also conductor and orchestrator
	Lilo & Stitch	Chris Sanders Dean DeBlois	Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Pictures	First collaboration with Chris Sanders Won - ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films Nominated — Annie Award for Music in a Feature Production Also choir arranger and conductor
	Stuart Little 2	Rob Minkoff	Red Wagon Entertainment Columbia Pictures	Also conductor
	Maid in Manhattan	Wayne Wang	Hughes Entertainment Revolution Studios Columbia Pictures	N/A
2003	Identity	James Mangold	Konrad Pictures Columbia Pictures	Also conductor Replaced Angelo Badalamenti
	Stitch! The Movie	Tony Craig Bobs Gannaway	Walt Disney Pictures	with Michael Tavera
	Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life	Jan de Bont	Mutual Film Company Lawrence Gordon Productions Paramount Pictures	Also conductor Replaced Craig Armstrong Themes by Graeme Revell
	Two Soldiers	Aaron Schneider	N/A	Short film Also conductor
2004	Van Helsing	Stephen Sommers	Universal Pictures	Won - ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Music Also conductor
	The Polar Express	Robert Zemeckis	Shangri-La Entertainment ImageMovers Playtone Castle Rock Entertainment Warner Bros.	Eleventh collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Also conductor Won - ASCAP Award for Top Box Office Films Nominated — Academy Award for Best Original Song Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Music Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song Nominated — Satellite Award for Best Original Song Nominated — World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film
2006	The Wild	Steve "Spaz" Williams	C.O.R.E. Walt Disney Pictures	Also conductor
	Night at the Museum	Shawn Levy	1492 Pictures Ingenious Film Partners 21 Laps Entertainment 20th Century Fox
2007	Beowulf	Robert Zemeckis	Shangri-La Entertainment ImageMovers Paramount Pictures (US) Warner Bros. (International)	Twelfth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Nominated — World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film Also conductor and orchestrator
2009	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian	Shawn Levy	Ingenious Film Partners 21 Laps Entertainment Dune Entertainment 1492 Pictures 20th Century Fox	Also conductor
	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Stephen Sommers	Hasbro Spyglass Entertainment Paramount Pictures	Also conductor and orchestrator
	G.I. Joe: The Invasion of Cobra Island	Rupinder Malhotra	RM Productions Ltd. Paramount Pictures	N/A
	A Christmas Carol	Robert Zemeckis	ImageMovers Digital Walt Disney Pictures	Thirteenth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Also lyricist, conductor and orchestrator

2010s

Year	Title	Director	Studio	Notes
2010	The A-Team	Joe Carnahan	Dune Entertainment Top Cow Productions Scott Free Productions 20th Century Fox	Also conductor and orchestrator Themes by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter
2011	Captain America: The First Avenger	Joe Johnston	Marvel Studios Paramount Pictures	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Music BMI Film Music Award Also conductor and orchestrator. First contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
2012	The Avengers	Joss Whedon	Marvel Studios Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures	Known as Avengers Assemble in some territories Also conductor and orchestrator. Second contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
	Flight	Robert Zemeckis	ImageMovers Paramount Pictures	Fourteenth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis
2013	The Croods	Chris Sanders Kirk DeMicco	DreamWorks Animation 20th Century Fox	Second collaboration with Chris Sanders Also conductor and orchestrator
	RED 2	Dean Parisot	DC Entertainment di Bonaventura Pictures Summit Entertainment Lionsgate	Themes by Christophe Beck
2014	Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb	Shawn Levy	1492 Pictures 21 Laps Entertainment TSG Entertainment 20th Century Fox
2015	The Walk	Robert Zemeckis	ImageMovers TriStar Pictures	Fifteenth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis
2016	Allied	Robert Zemeckis	GK Films ImageMovers Paramount Pictures	Sixteenth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis
2018	Ready Player One	Steven Spielberg	Village Roadshow Pictures Amblin Entertainment Warner Bros. Pictures	Fourth Spielberg theatrical film without his long-time composer John Williams since Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983),The Color Purple (1985), Bridge of Spies (2015), and Silvestri's first collaboration with Steven Spielberg
	Avengers: Infinity War	Anthony & Joe Russo	Marvel Studios Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures	First collaboration with Anthony & Joe Russo Third contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As composer and score producer, music orchestrated and conducted by Mark Graham
	Welcome to Marwen	Robert Zemeckis	ImageMovers DreamWorks Pictures Universal Pictures	Seventeenth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis Also conductor
2019	Avengers: Endgame	Anthony & Joe Russo	Marvel Studios Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures	Second collaboration with Anthony & Joe Russo Fourth contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe As composer, conductor, and score producer, score conducted with Mark Graham

2020s

Year	Title	Director	Studio	Notes
2020	The Witches	Robert Zemeckis	Esperanto Filmoj Double Dare You (DDY) ImageMovers Warner Bros. Pictures	Eighteenth collaboration with Robert Zemeckis
	The Croods 2	Joel Crawford	DreamWorks Animation Universal Pictures

Television series

Year	Title	Channel	Notes
1978–1979	Starsky & Hutch	ABC	Episodes: "Deckwatch" "Starsky's Brother" "Sweet Revenge"
1978–1983	CHiPs	NBC	95 episodes
1983	Manimal	NBC
	T. J. Hooker	ABC – CBS	Episode: "A Child Is Missing"
1986	Amazing Stories	NBC	Episode: "Go to the Head of Class"
1989–1995	Tales from the Crypt	HBO	Episodes: "And All Through the House" "Abra Cadaver" "Yellow" "Beauty Rest" "House of Horror" "Till Death Do We Part" "You, Murderer"
2014	Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey	Fox/National Geographic Channel	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series

External links

• AlanSilvestri.com
• Alan Silvestri at Allmusic
• Alan Silvestri at the Internet Movie Database
• Alan Silvestri at Soundtrackguide.net
• Castell'Alfero (Italy) country of Asti of which it is City Honorarium
• "Complete Alan Silvestri Discography". Retrieved January 2, 2017. {{cite web}}: