Hm, interesting. Will you at least allow that the name always appears in the first line?
I almost wrote “the first verse being usually, but not always, the name of the subject. . .” but I thought that was clunky and not clear. You Dopers are so technical.
Captain James Tiberius Kirk
Is a piece of work
When no hot humanoid greenskinned alien babes are within range of the transporter
He’ll do a horta
Harve Presnell
Wasn’t doing too well
'Till he ended his Hollywood embargo
And got a role in Fargo.
Karl Malden
Never read Walden
Knew nothing about it.
But never left home without it.
Al Franken
After seven months of recounts and litigious wankin’
Is going to the Senate
Funny, innit?
Manuel Zelaya
Goes from obscure, known-only-to-geeks Third-World banana-republic pol to global big-name playa
When a bunch of military mommas
Boot him out in his pajamas
Michael Jackson
Was trying to find a way to come back, son
But he bought the farm . . .
Guess what! That works like a charm! 
First attempt:
Arnold Schwartzenegger
Is forced to rely on “we’ll pay for it later.”
Meanwhile, the California legislature
Figures they’ll pass a budget soon or late, sure.
No (“There exists no proof as/ To who shot William Rufus/ But shooting him would seem/ To have been quite a sound scheme”–ECB). Also…
The liver’s imperiled
Of F. Scott Fitzgerald.
While finishing up “Last Tycoon”, he’s
Been drinking tee many martoonis.
Jean-Luc Picard.
It would be unfair to describe him as a complete retard.
While a lot of things he does are totally potty,
At least he doesn’t say things like “Beam me up, Scotty”.
Here’s a trio that I wrote a few years back, during a (place-dropper!) trip to Antarctica.
Robert Falcon Scott
Had to get there, first or not.
He die upon the way back;
He should have been more laid-back.
Richard Evelyn Byrd
Built Little America the Third.
He couldn’t think of another name,
But they built statues of him just the same. (1)
Carsten Egeburg Borchgrevink
Said, “I got there first, I think.
At least I’ll tell the world I did.”
But it wasn’t him, it was the kid. (2)
(1): Admiral Byrd’s Antarctic station was called “Little America”. A camp further inland was named “Little America III”.
(2): Borchgrevink claimed to be the first man to have set foot on the Antarctic continent. However it is popularly believed that the ship’s boy jumped out of the boat first, to help Borchgrevink.
The singer MJ
Was famed for the way
He used his great voice
And some trials about boys
Financier Madoff
Fiddled books and was bad, of
The millions he made once, he
Made most from schemes Ponzi
David Carradine
Was an actor most seen
In the series Kung Fu
But he did other things too
Farrah Fawcett
Was blonde, not brunette
As an Angel found fame
And today, it’s the same
Cecil Adams
Can answer questions on atoms
Or any subject but this:
Who he is
Ed Zotti
At school was a swot, he
Has an awesome mind, like Google
And wants rude words used frugal
Poor Andy Murray
Will cry for his mummy
Cause old Mr. Fedder (sp?)
Plays tennis much better
Abraham Lincoln
Did some thinkin’
'Bout the Gettysburg mess
So he gave an Address.
James Dean
Was pretty keen
For a movie star
Who didn’t get far.
Queen Victoria
Made Britain roar, yeah.
She ruled, it appears,
For 63 years.
Hmm, very odd. This is all news to me. I have never ever before today seen a poem in this form claiming to be a clerihew before.
I still like the other form best. These other ones seem like impostors.
Ok, I thought of another.
Marcel Proust
Sought le mot juste
But gave up at last
And wrote Remembrance of Things Past.
A beguiling man named Prince
Rare then, now, and forever since
Shuffled off his mortal coil
Left his fans to cry and roil
(Zombie thread, I know)
Clarihew, (no, not Peter)
Coined a biographical meter
To first give one’s name,
Then say the named one’s fame.
Richard Kiel
Wanted to keep it real.
They needed someone else, but who?
In stepped Peter Mayhew.
I used to be clever.