[1] His father was involved in the Bon and Berlaffa Company who were presenting Goldoni's Donne Curiose, and the actor who was to play the harlequin Pasquino fell ill.

In his autobiography, he writes that "when I perceived that some of Pasquino's lines were amusing the audience, I took courage, and, like a little bird making his first flight, I arrived at the goal, and was eager to try again … It is certain that from that time I began to feel that I was somebody.

It was with her as Elettra that he won his first success in tragedy, playing the title role in Alfieri's Oreste at the Teatro Valle in Rome.

1865 was the 600th anniversary of Dante's birth, and as part of the celebrations Florence invited four of Italy's greatest actors—Ristori, Rossi, Salvini and Majeroni—to play in Silvio Pellico's Francesca di Rimini, which is based on an incident in La Divina Commedia.

His other important roles included Conrad in Paolo Giacometti's La Morte civile, Egisto in Alfieri's Merope, Saul in Alfieri's Saul, Paolo in Silvio Pellico's Francesca da Rimini, Oedipus in Niccolini's play of that name, Macbeth and King Lear.

There was that about him that was universal, and had he remained mute and contented himself with acting alone his audience could scarcely have failed to understand, so faithful was his portraiture of human instincts and their action"[4] Salvini's acting in Othello greatly inspired the young Russian actor Constantin Stanislavski, who saw Salvini perform in Moscow in 1882 and who would, himself, go on to become one of the most important theatre practitioners in the history of theatre.

Alessandro acted in movies dating back to silent pictures and Guido directed and wrote for films in the sound era.