Hi, Rick.
I just went through the same kind of thing on my 51" Mitsubishi Rear-projection. Just a few differences, the set was about 12-13 years old. Some funny (electronic-death) noises, then loss of picture, then, the set wouldn't turn on at all. Bad smells, too.
If I was patient, I bet I could've fixed the set myself. As Already mentioned, in those rear-projection sets it's always the same things. Convergence ICs, or a few of the can-capacitors that fry. You might get lucky; there's A LOT of fuses in those sets; if you download a manual or something and maybe you'll get lucky and it will only be a fuse. Otherwise, If you're good with a search engine, I bet you can fix it for <$100. But, you need to decide what your time is worth/hr.
Since my set was almost 15 years old, I let it go and bought a 42'plasma and I don't regret it. I really worried about choosing the wrong one but I really enjoyed
www.cnet.com and consumerreports.com, and I only spent about $800 and I'm thrilled with my Panasonic plasma.